iwnnooqnBj 



THE BUSY WOMAN'S 





-IDAD.BENNET- 







GtpightN" 



COEXRIGHT DEPOSm 



THE BUSY WOMAN'S 
GARDEN BOOK 



Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/busywomansgarden01benn 




/In outside zvindozv box thai harmonizes ■zcith the general 
architectural scheme 



THE BUSY WOMAN'S 
GARDEN BOOK 



IDA Dr BENNETT 




BOSTON 

SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 






^'b^ 

0X^ 



Ck)pyriglit, 1920, 

By small, MAYNARD & COMPANY 

{ incorporated) 



MAY 13 1920 
©CI,A565926 



INTRODUCTION 

This little book has a very definite aim — a big 
aim too, though two little words or even one will 
serve to define it — To help, or better still, per- 
haps — helpfulness. It does not aim to tell every- 
thing there is to tell about gardening ; that would 
be encyclopedic and quite out of the scope of a 
small, practical work on gardening, but it does 
aim to give, in plain, everyday language sufficient 
and clear directions for caring for an ordinary 
kitchen garden in a way the least exhausting of 
time and strength and with all unnecessary ex- 
penditure eliminated. It covers all necessary 
detail except that of personal equation; that — 
Dear Woman, when the spring time calls and 
you go forth full of enthusiasm, is, in the language 
of the day — "Up to you." Your garden will 
give back to you just what you put into it — no 
more, and the more you give to it the less it will 
exact of you; neglect it ever so little and it will 



Introduction 

prove a hard taskmaster indeed, or a living re- 
proach — a reproach that will burgeon and bloom 
in noxious weeds and sickening plants, a garden 
where the worm dieth not and the aphis and grub 
revel undisturbed and unchecked. 

There is nothing so easy as to keep a garden 
in perfect order, free from weeds and pernicious 
insect life, nothing easier than to have the re- 
verse of this. One cannot garden successfully on 
the principle that one can work in the garden 
when there is nothing else to do, no one to play 
with, nowhere to go. The garden should be first 
to a certain extent, and this is not an arbitrary or 
exacting condition for the toll exacted is paid for 
many times over in the peace of mind that comes 
from work well and conscientiously done, to say 
nothing of the economic value of thrifty veg- 
etables. 

There are always critical times in the life of 
the garden; — the gardener must recognize these 
and be prepared to give just the assistance the 
condition requires at just the time it is required; 
if this is done promptly" it will surprise one who 

vi 



Introduction 

has had no system heretofore in the garden 
work to see how httle time is really required to 
care for a garden successfully. The failure to 
co-operate with nature at the right time may 
result in many hours of wearisome work. 

Take the matter of weeds; — if the planting is 
closely watched and the weeds cut off as quickly 
as they show a seed leaf above ground, and before 
they have stuck their roots deeply enough into 
the ground to make more than a mere stirring of 
the soil necessary, an entire week's crop of weeds 
will be destroyed with one stirring of the soil. 
Weeds come in relays a week or ten days apart, 
come not at all if the soil is kept properly stirred 
— which should be after every rain and between 
if the rain is infrequent, and it is well worth one's 
time to exercise a little self-denial and give this 
cultivation even though it may mean letting 
something else go that one would like to do. 

And one need not worry too much about being 
scientific in one's gardening; insecticides, fungi- 
cides and the like are the allies of the careless 
gardener, but the wide awake, industrious gar- 



Introduction 

dener has little need of them. Healthy, vigorous 
plants are not especially susceptible to insect at- 
tacks and with the exception of potato bugs, squash 
bugs and cabbage worms the danger from them 
is merely negligible, but the careless, slovenly 
gardener is a real and pestilential danger. 

There is much in choosing the right time of 
day for work in the garden; it is delightful to 
wield the rake and hoe in the cool of the after- 
noon, but where the object is the destruc- 
tion of weeds the morning hours of a sunny 
day will give permanent results as the weeds will 
be killed by the hot sun, while those hoed up in 
late afternoon will often be revived by the cool- 
ness and dew of night and be ready to withstand 
the morrow's sun, so take the morning hours for 
destroying weeds, and the cooler hours for plant- 
ing seeds, staking up plants, thinning out plants 
and the like but always the bright, dry sunny hours 
for tying up such vegetables as need blanching: 
cauliflower, endive and the Hke. This will make 
for success in the various operations and comfort 
in working. 

viii 



Introduction 

Where it is necessary to water the garden this 
should if possible be done after the sun has nearly 
or quite gone from it in order to reduce the loss 
of moisture by evaporation; this is especially de- 
sirable in city gardens where the water is metered 
and always, if possible a night's watering should 
be followed by shallow cultivation the following 
forenoon to restore the dust-mulch and necessi- 
tate as little watering as possible. These are a 
few of the little attentions which make for success 
in the garden and minimize the simi of the sea- 
son's work. 



IX 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTEK PAGE 

I Planning the Garden 1 

II Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats ... 12 

III Planting Seed in the Open Ground . . 36 

IV Transplanting 48 

V Garden Tools 53 

VI Holding and Increasing the Fertility of 

Soil 64 

VII Asparagus 80 

VIII Early Spring Vegetables 86 

IX Mid-Season Vegetables 122 

X Vegetables of the Vine Family . . . 171 

XI Vegetables Less Commonly Grown . . 186 

XII Quantity of Seed Required 200 

XIII Sweet, Pot and Medicinal Herbs . . . 202 

XIV Plant Enemies and Insecticides . . . 208 

XV Winter Storage 220 

XVI Canning the Garden Surplus for Winter 

Use 232 

XVII Fall Work in the Garden 256 

XVIII The Annual Garden 261 

XIX The Hardy Garden 273 

XX The Planting of Fall Bulbs .... 282 

XXI Economy in the Purchase op Shrubbery . 289 

XXII A Continuous Succession of Bloom in the 

Shrubbery 297 

XXIII Gardening for Shut-Ins 308 

XXIV The Possibilities of a City Flat . . . 318 



THE BUSY WOMAN'S 
GARDEN BOOK 



THE BUSY WOMAN'S 
GARDEN BOOK 

CHAPTER I 

PLANNING THE GARDEN 

THE favorable location of the garden is the 
initial step in its planning. The kitchen 
garden — always an important auxiliary of the 
kitchen — is now, in these days, something more; 
it is becoming more and more a part of the do- 
mestic routine; it is a woman's garden, to be 
planned for and cared for by the women of the 
family, and in that relation must be considered 
from all its points of view. Location, then, be- 
comes of first importance. It must be accessible, 
that its care may demand as little extra work as 
possible, and that little be given to the actual 
cultivation and care and not to going back and 

1 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

forth. If one can run out and cultivate a row of 
lettuce or train up a row of peas while waiting for 
the irons to heat or the kettle to boil, then one 
will find the sum total of the garden work far less 
onerous than where one must calculate on going 
over the entire plat, or a stated portion of it, at 
one operation. 

A location close to the house, more or less 
secluded, that one may work free from interrup- 
tion and espionage and where the vegetables may 
bask in the sun from early morning till late after- 
noon, is desirable, and this is best achieved in a 
southern exposure with the garden rows running 
north and south. 

If the garden plot is protected by buildings or 
a high fence, or a wind-break of evergreen on the 
north it will afford a favorable position for the 
necessary hotbeds and cold frames and the close 
relationship of the two will work for efficiency in 
handling. 

A warm, mellow, sandy loam is the ideal soil 
for the vegetable garden, but even a poor soil may 
be so built up and redeemed by proper cultivation 



Planning the Garden 

and fertilising as to make the quality of the soil 
of secondary consideration, but if one can have 
both at once then one is happy indeed. Tena- 
cious, clayey soil or newly broken sod ground 
should not, however, be undertaken by a woman, 
such ground is a man's job. 

But it is the warm, sunny location that is vital 
to the successful cultivation of the garden. All 
the early vegetables — peas, lettuce, endive and the 
like — call for abundant sunshine in the cool days 
of early spring, and, as the season advances and 
the fall chill is in the air at nightfall, then the 
warm sunshine will hasten the maturity of such 
late comers as tomatoes, winter squash, citron and 
any late-sown vegetables that are used to succeed 
the earlier growths. Again in the late days of 
winter or early spring those vegetables that were 
left in the ground for early use — the parsnips, 
and salsify, will be available much earlier if given 
a warm location where the ground thaws readily, 
rather than a cold exposure that holds frost late 
in the season. 

A piece of ground adjoining other cultivated 

3 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

areas is far preferable to an isolated plot as it may 
be ploughed in conjunction with the larger piece 
and so kept in a better grade and condition. An 
isolated garden plot, which must be prepared 
separately necessitating a dead furrow in the 
center, becomes, in the course of a few years a 
dish shaped area very disagreeable to cultivate; 
an open area, on two sides at least, obviates this in 
a measure and renders the ground more level and 
easily prepared. 

Any garden spot, however, should always be 
ploughed rather than spaded and as deep plough- 
ing as possible should be the rule. If the soil is 
good go as close to the bottom of it as possible, 
the shallow ploughing so universal — seldom more 
than six inches in depth, does not give a mellow 
bed for any but shallow rooted vegetables. Car- 
rots, salsify, parsnips and similar long-rooted 
things must fairly drill their way into the hard 
ground below the shallow cultivation, this result- 
ing in deformed, stunted or many twigged roots, 
unsalable and of little value for the home table. 
The long, smooth, beautiful bottoms are only pro- 

4 



Planning the Garden 

duced by deep cultivation to start with and, of 
course, the subsequent cultivation must efficiently 
supplement this. A very excellent method of 
preparing the gi'ound would be to turn a deep 
furrow with the plough and follow this with the 
subsoil plough, stirring up the subsoil, but not 
mixing it with the top soil; this would give sev- 
eral inches of loose soil beneath the first furrows 
that the roots could readily penetrate. So many 
consider that all the fertility in a soil is contained 
in the few top inches of soil, and in a measure 
this is true — the available fertility is right there 
— but there is a wealth of unused fertility in the 
lower strata, but lack of cultivation, lack of 
moisture and most of all, lack of the humus which 
makes the soil retentive of moisture, render it 
unavailable, but if it is broken up and gradually 
mixed with the humus of the upper soil it becomes 
available and the soil is increasing in fertility in- 
stead of growing thinner and poorer year by 
year. 

Following the ploughing comes the smoothing 
and leveling of the ground by dragging with a 

5 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

spiked or spring tooth harrow; this part of the 
work should be very thoroughly done; too fine a 
seed bed can never be produced, whatever the 
means employed and the use of drags and har- 
rows by no means spells the whole operation of 
fitting a garden for planting. After the drag- 
ging the garden rake is in order and the ground 
must be raked over and over until thoroughly 
fine and free from roughage of sticks, stones, 
clods and the like. If any weeds have been 
drawn to the surface in dragging they must be 
pulled out and thrown aside. If there is a dead 
furrow in the middle of the plot then the raking 
should be towards that from both directions so 
as to fill it in as much as possible and so restore 
the level of the ground. 

It is not necessary to rake the entire garden at 
once if time and strength are at a premium. One 
may rake a space sufficient for the first planting 
and when that is done rake another space and so 
equalize the labor, but it is easier to rake soon 
after the preliminary fitting is done than to leave 
it until a rain has packed the earth and made it 

6 



Planning the Garden 

heavy to move. A good rain, however, should 
always precede the planting, if possible, as newly 
worked ground is not sufficiently settled for sow- 
ing seed and not so desirable for setting out of 
plants. 

The arrangement of the vegetables in the gar- 
den has much to do with the convenience of car- 
ing for it. It is always a good arrangement to 
plant the early vegetables, such as lettuce, rad- 
ishes, beets, endive and onions at the end of the 
garden nearest the house where they are most 
easily available as one has occasion to use them in 
preparing a meal. Then, too, all these small 
things are planted a standard distance apart — 
usually twelve or fifteen inches, — twelve if the 
gardener is addicted to trowsers, fifteen if skirts 
are in evidence, for it is difficult to work in a 
narrower space, especially among the tender tops 
of seedling onions, in petticoats. So, with the 
rows running north and south, that the vegetables 
may receive the greatest possible amount of sun- 
shine, and the vegetables planted in consecutive 
rows of increasing distances apart, one has a 

7 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

planting schedule economical of space and labor. 
This order of planting shxDuld also be made to 
include height as well as distance apart of the 
rows of vegetables. Low growing things should 
always occupy the front rows of space and not 
be overshaded by tall growths. For this reason 
the planting of sweet corn in the garden plot is 
not desirable; it is best to give this a space by 
itself — preferably on the north side of the garden. 
Vine vegetables, too, have little place in the gar- 
den proper — a place for them on the south side 
of the garden should be reserved if possible, 
for with the best of management they will break 
bounds and encroach on other plants. I recall 
a planting of English marrows which were 
placed in the garden next to a row of red pep- 
pers. They were bought for bush marrows but 
proved to be the vine variety and in a month's 
time had practically taken possession of that end 
of the garden ; peppers and tomatoes were smoth- 
ered under a luxuriant growth of squash vines 
whose luxuriance was only equalled by the aston- 
ishing amount of fruit they bore. In desperate 

8 



Planning the Garden 

effort to check their encroachments great lengths 
of vines, bearing half grown marrows, were ruth- 
lessly removed with no more apparent result than 
to encourage a still more luxuriant growth and 
to increase the gardener's knowledge of the 
amount of pruning a really ambitions, vigorous 
vine will stand. 

The bush varieties of many vegetables are a 
great boon to the small home gardener as most 
of them are prolific bearers and require no more 
room than a hill of potatoes or an egg plant. 
Squash, melons, lima beans — all have dwarf forms 
that are preferable to the usual vine varieties. 

The home garden should not be too large — a 
plot forty by eighty feet will grow all the summer 
and winter vegetables a small family can make 
use of and a considerable surplus for sale, 
especially is this the case where the com and 
vines are planted outside the garden proper. 
Potatoes, too, are excluded from this estimate, 
though a few rows of early potatoes may find 
room available. 

The accompanying planting table, while in- 

9 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

tended to be merely suggestive will be of use 
as indicating the amount of room required for 
the several varieties of plants and a convenient 
arrangement. The amount to be grown of any- 
one variety however, must be decided by the indi- 
vidual gardener and it will be time well spent 
to make a diagram for one's self, based on the 
amount of various vegetables that experience 
shows to be needed. To those vegetables to 
which the family are most addicted should always 
be added a few that are grown with the occasional 
guest in mind and the few things that one likes to 
try from season to season, and that add zest to 
gardening but should never be allowed to occupy 
space needed for more standard sorts. 

PLANTING-TABLE FOR A SMALL GARDEN APPROXI- 
MATELY FORTY BY EIGHTY FEET 

Lettuce — May King, 1 row. Transplant from hotbed to 9 in. apart. 
Onions — Transplanted seedlings of Prizetaker, Ailsa Craig 

or Silver Skin, 1 in 1 oz. 

Parsley — Dwarf Perfection. Transplant to 9 in. apart. ... 1 Pkt. 
Endive — One row, Giant Fringed. Transplant to 9 in. 

apart 1 Pkt. 

Beets — Two rows, Crosby's Egyptian. Thin to 3 in 2 oz. 

Carrots — Two rows, Danvers Half Long. Thin to 3 in. . . 1 oz. 
Parsnips — Large Sugar or Hollow Crown. Two rows. 

Thin to 3 in Va oz. 

10 



Planning the Garden 

Salsify — Two rows, smooth. Mammoth Sandwich Island. 

Thin to 3 in 1 oz. 

Spinach — One row, All Season. Thin to 8 in -^ oz. 

Lima Beans — Fordhook Bush. Thin to 6 in 2 lb. 

String Beans — WardweU's Kidney Wax, or Navy Beans. 

Two rows 2 lb. 

Peas — Double rows. Senator, Gradus, Telephone. On wire 

netting 2 lb. 

Peppers — One row, Ruby Giant, Bull Nose, or Pimento. 

12 in. apart 1 Pkt. 

Bush Muskmelons — Three ft. apart 1 Pkt. 

Okra — Perkins' Long Pod. Half row, thin to 1 foot % lb. 

Egg-Plant— Black Beauty. 18 in. 1 Pkt. 

Early Potatoes — Dreer's Perfection, Early Ohio. Fifteen 

inches apart 1 Pk. 

Cauliflower — Early Snowball. Twenty in. apart 1 Pkt. 

Cauliflower — Dry Weather. Twenty in. apart 1 Pkt. 

Cabbage— Late Flat Dutch. 2 ft. apart 1 Pkt. 

Squash — Delicious, Burbank's Hubbard. 6 ft. apart each 

way 1 oz. 



11 



CHAPTER II 

HOTBEDS, COLD FRAMES AND FLATS 

O important is the preparatory work per- 
formed by a well started and conducted hot- 
bed that its use cannot be too insistently recom- 
mended. The smallest, least ambitious home 
garden is dependent upon the use of artificial 
heat in the starting of such plants as cabbage, 
cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes and the like, 
either in hotbeds on the home grounds, flats in 
the windows or plants grown in commercial green- 
houses; these, owing to the long season required 
to bring them into bearing, cannot be started in 
the open gi'ound; especially is this true of such 
heat loving things as peppers and tomatoes. 

Owing to the quite general practice of buying 
these plants of the commercial gardeners or 
florists a much smaller area of ground is devoted 
to their growth than would be the case were 
the plants grown in one's own hotbeds where the 

12 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

initial cost would have been that of a few packets 
of seeds. Purchased plants are by no means 
immune from late frosts or the assaults of cut 
worms and not infrequently demand successive 
replantings before a satisfactory stand is secured. 
With a well stocked hotbed this does not spell 
so great a disaster, as only the labor of resetting 
is demanded and this is not of much moment as 
the lines and points of setting are already laid 
down and the hills of tomatoes, egg plants and 
peppers already supplied with their spade full 
of manure. In a generous sized garden where 
perhaps a hundred plants of a kind are grown 
the saving in the cost of plants will cover the 
construction 'and maintenance oif an ordinary 
hotbed and the cost of a bed of the best con- 
crete construction, which will last almost a life- 
time, will be covered in a reasonably short time. 
There is nothing about the construction or care 
of a hotbed that offers any obstacles to its posses- 
sion and I have about come to the conclusion that 
the only reason more gardeners do not have them 
is because they cannot borrow them ; they are the 

13 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

only thing about a garden that some one can't 
and doesn't borrow and if some one would invent 
a portable one it would undoubtedly become 
popular. 

The requirements are simple: — A sunny 
location, protected from prevailing winds — 
usually from the west, and on the north by a wall, 
building or fence. Being started in the early 
days of spring — from February, in the vicinity 
of the Ohio river, to late March or early April in 
the vicinity of the Great Lakes; they require a 
background that will hold the heat of the sun 
instead of allowing it to escape. 

A well-drained position should be chosen and 
it should be as handy to the house and garden as 
practicable, especially the former as, once it is 
planted and plants up and growing, it will require 
frequent supervision in the changeable weather 
of early spring. Under a bright sun the tem- 
perature rises very rapidly in a glass-covered 
hotbed and it is necessaiy to see that it does not 
rise high enough to injure the plants; equally 
the temperature falls rapidly in an open bed when 

14 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

the sun goes under a cloud, and the sash must be 
adjusted to meet these deviations of temper- 
ature ; often a moment's work in raising or lower- 
ing the sash will spell success or failure in the 
conduct of the bed. 

A pit or excavation in the ground for holding 
a supply of fermenting manure to furnish heat 
for the bed is the first step in the construction 
of the hotbed; the size and depth of this will 
depend somewhat upon the number of plants it 
is desired to produce and upon the rigors of the 
climate and the prevalence of late springs and 
frosts. As a general thing, for the ordinary 
home garden a bed three feet by twelve is suffi- 
cient, but the added expense of a few additional 
feet is so slight and the use of a bed so appeals 
to one once one realizes its convenience, that it 
is seldom a mistake to make it too large as, 
aside from the sowing of seed, it may be used 
for starting roots of bedding plants, cannas, 
dahlias, begonias, tuberoses, caladiums; the strik- 
ing of cuttings and many garden operations that 
have formerly been done in a bungling, cumber- 

15 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

some way in the house or with the costly assistance 
of the florists. 

The depth of the pit should not be less than 
three feet and four, from the top of the frame, 
is better, as it is upon the depth of the manure 
that the length or duration of the heat depends. 
A shallow pit will give a quick heat which soon 
gives out, usually when most needed, during a 
sudden cold wave, and as the expense of a foot 
more or less counts for little it is best to be on 
the safe side and have sufficient heat. 

If economy must be observed or the bed is 
for temporary use, a rough frame of boards will 
answer every purpose; it need not even extend 
below the surface of the ground, but merely rest 
upon it, but such construction is not to be recom- 
mended except for temporary structures or where 
it is desired to remove the frame as soon at it 
has served its purpose in supplying plants for 
spring planting; but a well built, permanent hot- 
bed has by no means served its mission with the 
passing of the spring months, it may be profitably 
kept in commission the year around. 

16 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

If, however, the construction must be along 
economical hnes waste lumber and old window 
sash may be employed very satisfactorily. Hav- 
ing dug the pit of the required depth and width 
and length — three feet if old sash are to be used 
will be the best width and is desirable 
anyway as it can be easily reached across and 
can be placed close to a building and so occupy 
much less ground than where the usual florist 
sash is used, a frame consisting of four upright 
posts two by four inches and six feet long for the 
two rear posts and five feet long for the front, 
to give the necessary slant to the frame, should 
be used ; on these the boards for the sides and ends 
should be nailed, the end boards sawed to a true 
slant that the sash may rest evenly upon them ; the 
frame is then lowered into the pit and the soil 
leveled off around it and made firm so that no 
cold air finds entrance. To such a frame the sash 
may be hinged at the back and notched sticks 
adjusted to hold it at any desired angle. 

In the permanent cement hotbed the pit is 
dug as before, then interlined with boards to form 

17 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

a mould and the space filled in with a good ce- 
ment mixture, paddling it smooth on the side 
next to the boards and allowing the boards to 
remain in place until the cement has hard- 
ened/ Before the cement has set, however, a 
frame of two by four must be fitted on top of 
the cement to receive the sash. Long spikes 
should be driven through the timbers at intervals 
to be pressed into the cement to insure a good 
joint. It is also an advantage to arrange for 
partitions through the bed by nailing cleats of 
wood on the inside of the wooden form at points 
where the sash will meet. This will form slots in 
the concrete into which thin boards can be slipped 
to separate such plants as require much heat from 
those requiring less heat and much air. The par- 
titions should not extend much, if any below the 
surface of the soil so the slots need not extend 

1 Or a trench as deep as the qompleted pit and as narrow as 
can be handled may be dug to outline a pit of the required di- 
mensions, and filled with grout, well tamped down; when this has 
had time to harden sufficiently, the earth may be removed from 
the center and the cement given a finishing coat, and the wall 
brought to the required height above ground by the aid of a 
frame of boards. 

18 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

below the top foot of wall. These partitions 
are not really necessary but often come in very 
handy and are so easily arranged for that their 
occasional use justifies their presence. Where 
they are employed the sash can be left open where 
required far more safely than if they were not 
in use. Cabbage and cauliflowers do best if given 
plenty of air and* even a tinge of frost will not 
injure them, while it would be fatal to such heat 
loving plants as tomatoes, peppers, egg plants 
and many tender flowers and bulbous plants. 

The double sash is a great protection for hot- 
beds started very early, but as a rule there is 
little occasion for starting the beds before the 
middle of March or early April in the northern 
states as it is only necessary to give the plants 
about six weeks' start of open ground operations. 
Usually we make our out-of-door planting about 
the twentieth of May at the north and correspond- 
ingly later as we go south, but if we count back six 
weeks from"Corn planting t-ime," the country over 
we will have reliable data for starting the hot- 
bed. Plants left too long in the bed deteriorate 

19 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

and should be scheduled to be got into the 
ground as soon as they are fit ; if this is done they 
will not suffer from over crowding nor will it be 
necessary to transplant ; though this is always an 
advantage with certain plants. If to the hotbed 
is added the convenience of a cold frame to which 
the cabbage and cauliflower can be transplanted 
as soon as they show rough leaves it will be a de- 
cided advantage and the room thus secured in the 
hotbed can be used to transplant tomatoes, pep- 
pers and the like, thus giving better rooted, stock- 
ier plants. 

Fresh horse manure is used for heating the bed 
and must be procured from stables where a num- 
ber of horses are kept that sufficient may be ob- 
tained at one time. It is not necessary for the 
small hotbed to pile the manure and turn it over 
two or three times before putting it into the pit ; 
much time and labor is saved by putting it at once 
in the pit, tramping it down as filled in until 
it is within five or six inches of the level of the 
ground outside. Care must be taken that it is 
tramped down evenly, especially in the corners, 

20 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

or it will settle unevenly and cause the soil to sink 
in places. The earth may be placed on at once 
if the manure is steaming when put in the pit. 
Good, mellow loam, containing a portion of 
humus or leaf mould is the best hotbed soil and 
it should be fine and free from all roughage of 
sticks and stones and hard lumps of soil. Put- 
ting the top inch or two through a sand screen is 
a good practice as this gives a fine soil suitable 
for the finer seeds. 

Usually the bed will be in condition for sow- 
ing in twenty-four hom-s, if the manure is 
heating well — ^and this can be ascertained by 
thrusting a fork down into the bed and leaving 
it a few moments, withdrawing and feeling of 
the tines, when the temperature can be quite 
accurately gauged — or a thermometer may be 
forced down through the soil upon the manure for 
a test. From four to five inches of soil will be 
sufficient if the season is late — slightly more if 
the season is early and the plants likely to remain 
long in the beds, and it must be leveled off as 
flat as possible so that in watering the water will 

21 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

not run and wash the seeds out of the ground. 

The sowing of the seed is one of the fascinating 
phases of gardening that every bom gardener en- 
joys and the watching for the breaking of the 
soil with the tiny green seed leaves is a joy indeed. 
Unlike open air planting, there is rarely a failure 
in seed germination if good seed is used. The 
ideal conditions of warm soil, mellow, moist soil 
of just the right consistency; protection from 
changes of weather all make for a high per cent 
of plants from the sowing, and the chief difficulty 
is often an embarrassment of plants — that is they 
come up too thickly, a trouble that is easily obvi- 
ated by sowing quite thinly, holding back a por- 
tion of the seed for later sowings if needed, or for 
a later crop. 

Each variety of seed must be given a little plot 
of ground by itself and should be separated from 
its neighbor by thin strips of wood pressed into 
the soil; this not only helps in identifying plants 
of similar appearance, but also prevents the wash- 
ing together of the seed when too much water is 
applied. Where two or three different varieties of 

2a 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

the same plant — as Early Dutch Cabbage, Danish 
Roundhead, Early Summer, etc., are sown it will 
be well to alternate the plots with some other 
vegetable so as to leave no chance for mistakes in 
setting out the plants later on. A row of lettuce 
or radishes may be interposed if desired; at any 
rate the presence of the strips of wood will aid 
greatly in keeping them distinct. 

Each plot of seeds must be plainly labeled 
with thin strips of wood marked with the name 
of the seed and the date of sowing. If seeds of 
certain plants have been purchased of different 
seedsmen it will be well to indicate the source on 
the labels, in this way one can compare the fer- 
tility of the two purchases of seed and decide 
which is the more desirable. 

There is a great difference in the germination 
of different garden seeds, certain varieties ap- 
pearing in from three to five days — as cabbage, 
radishes, etc. Others — like peppers, parsley and 
the like — require from two to three weeks to 
appear above ground and one should not lose 
faith in the "Quickness" of the seed until a reason- 

23 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

able time has elapsed, nor will it be desirable to 
dig them up every day or two to see if they are 
growing; this will discourage rather than accel- 
erate the process. 

If the soil in the hotbed appears dry when 
sowing the seed it should be carefully watered by 
means of a fine-nosed watering pot or a whisk 
broom dipped in water, care being taken that not 
enough water is used at a time to wash the soil 
or disturb the planting. If any seed is uncov- 
ered it must be recovered. Seed sown under the 
protection of sash, either in hotbed or cold frame, 
does not require to be covered as deeply as when 
in the open ground, often about as much soil as 
will entirely cover it is sufficient, always so in 
the case of fine seed which should be sown broad- 
cast in sections and covered by sifting fine soil or 
clean sand over and pressing all down firmly with 
a piece of board. Larger seeds may be sown in 
drills, opened a quarter of an inch deep and the 
earth drawn over them and pressed down. 

Plants that make a rather high growth, even in 
the hotbed, like tomatoes, should not be planted 

24 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

in front of lower growing things, but should 
be in the rear or extend entirely across the bed; 
tomatoes, for instance, are apt to overtop such 
plants as peppers, which grow quite slowly in 
the hotbed. Endive, parsley, lettuce and onions, 
all are plants which do not assert themselves very 
strongly at first and should not be crowded for 
room or sunshine. 

When all the planting is in and the soil watered, 
if necessary, newspapers should be spread over 
the soil and the bed closed and germination 
awaited. If the sun is very hot it may be neces- 
sary to raise the sash before the plants appear, 
but where this is done care must be taken that 
the papers are not disturbed by the wind, as if 
blown about the soil will dry out and check or 
kill germination. 

As soon as a plot of seeds breaks ground the 
little seedlings will need air and hght and the 
paper should be removed from this portion and 
replaced on top of the glass, held in place with 
pieces of wood or anything that will prevent its 
blowing about; this will only be necessary until 

25 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

the plants are able to stand full sunlight, which 
will be as soon as they have grown their first 
pair of real leaves. As the young plants increase 
in size more and more air and sunshine should be 
given them and due attention to watering must 
be carefully observed. Lath screens to temper 
the sun will be necessary and will be needed to 
replace the sash when the plants are large enough 
to dispense with it during the heat of the day; 
these, in turn, may be replaced by wire screens 
if there is any danger of predatory cats, chickens 
or children, for it is the work of but a few mo- 
ments for an entire planting to be destroyed by 
any one of them. Puss likes nothing better than 
to get into that nice warm hotbed and roll on the 
soft warm ground and as for Biddy ! 

It is surprising the number of things that may 
be started in the hotbed and transplanted into the 
open ground as soon as the weather permits, thus 
gaining at least a month's start in the garden. A 
great many of the vegetables that are always sown 
in the open ground — beets, string or lima beans, 
endive, lettuce — ^all may be started in the hotbed 

26 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

and planted out and will give one very tender and 
succulent vegetables to use while the main crop 
is maturing from open ground sowing. Once 
one has acquired the hotbed habit one will never 
have quite room enough for one will always be 
wanting to try something more. One of the 
most satisfactory pushing forward of vegetables 
is achieved in planting melons and cucumbers and 
squash on pieces of sod in the hotbed. Of course 
cucumbers for pickles should always be sown 
rather late in the open ground but fruit for slicing 
for the table may very profitably- be started on 
sod and transferred to the open ground when all 
danger of frost is passed and so be ready a good 
month sooner and what is, perhaps, quite as im- 
portant, escape the ravages of the striped cucum- 
ber beetle, that exasperating foe to vine culture. 

A cold wet spell at planting time often results 
in a loss of the entire planting of Lima and string 
beans, but if one has taken the precaution of 
planting a half pint of seed in the hotbed and 
transplanting them along about the twenty-first 
of May, one can wait until the first of June, if 

n 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

necessary, to plant the main crop and be assured 
of a successful stand of plants which will bear 
quite as early as if planted in unsuitable weather 
and soil; this is of especial moment owing 
to the high price of this class of seed; all 
varieties of seeds have advanced in price but the 
difference is most marked in seeds of the various 
legumes — peas and beans, of all varieties which 
command a price that makes especial care in their 
planting advisable. 

Cold Frames 

Supplement effectively the hotbed or, in mild 
climates, take their place. They are, to all effects 
and purposes a hotbed — minus the heat — and so 
do not require the excavation of a pit. The part 
above the ground is similar to that of the hotbed, 
being supplied with sash and given the same 
slant to shed water and concentrate as much sun- 
shine as possible. For spring use it should front 
the south and occupy a well-drained position, 
but for mid-season use an east exposure is often 

28 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

desirable. If one wishes to use it to transplant 
things from the hotbed, then a temporary frame 
of boards made to bolt together may be con- 
structed that may be taken apart and stored away 
when no longer required; if used for trans- 
planting the sash should be in a position a week 
before it is needed so that the soil may become 
warm and friable, then the little plants of cab- 
bage, cauliflower and the like may be transferred 
without any appreciable check in the growth and 
what there is will be advantageous as it will re- 
sult in the formation of a mass of fibrous roots 
which will give them an additional chance in the 
struggle for life in the open. Even screens of 
cheese cloth will give sufficient protection in any 
but frosty weather and blankets may supplement 
these on cold days if glass is prohibitive on ac- 
count of its excessive price. 

A well-spaded bed of good soil, enriched with 
a little well decayed manure — that from last 
year's hotbed will answer, or bone meal may be 
used or a commercial fertilizer, for the plants will 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

need food at this stage of their growth, should be 
prepared and the frame set on this or sunk a few 
inches into the ground to insure warmth and pre- 
vent the ingress of small rodents which some- 
how show a peculiar penchant for hotbeds and 
cold frames and have been known to destroy a 
whole planting of seeds in a single night. A 
little nitrate of soda scattered between the rows 
of cabbage and cauliflower will work wonders in 
the growth of these plants and is to be recom- 
mended at this stage of their growth and again 
when transplanted into the open ground. 

Other forms of plant protection are found in 
the frameless beds protected by lath screens; 
these are used mainly during the summer months 
and are especially adapted for growing pansies 
from seed to be transferred to cold frames in the 
fall and grown on until time to plant out in per- 
manent beds in spring ; for growing violets in like 
manner and also for starting cabbage seed to be 
held over winter in cold frames for early spring 
planting. 



30 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

The Sand Box 

Is used as an auxiliary to the hot bed for a 
nursery for those plants which are to be used in 
the house or conservatory during winter and must 
be kept in a growing, but not blooming, condi- 
tion during summer and shifted from pot to pot 
as occasion requires. Though mainly essential in 
the growing of house plants it is often found of 
much use as a place to carry on such vegetable 
plants as one may desire to pot off for sale or for 
stockier growth, previous to setting in the open 
ground. The sand box consists of any shallow 
box of sufficient size to hold a considerable num- 
ber of two to four inch pots. It should not, pre- 
ferably, be over three feet wide but may be of any 
desired length. Five inches is a good depth. It 
should be elevated on some kind of support, at a 
convenient height to work at when sitting on a 
stool or box. When used for growing house 
plants it is usually placed in a rather shady spot 
on the east side of the house, but if used for vege- 
tables it may be given a more sunny, exposed 

31 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

position; it should be filled with clean sand into 
which the pots are plunged to their rims and the 
sand is kept constantly wet. The pots should be 
turned around in the sand every day or two to 
prevent the roots, which escape through the hole 
in the bottom of the pot, growing in the sand ; to 
prevent this also place a piece of broken crock or 
glass over the drainage hole. In potting off 
plants from the hotbed use a small thumb-pot at 
first and re-pot in one a size larger as soon as the 
roots form a network around the outside of the 
ball of earth : this condition may be ascertained by 
tapping the pot against the side of the box which 
will loosen the ball of earth and allow it to drop 
out on the hand. Plants that are to go into the 
ground in late May will probably not require re- 
potting, certainly not more than once, but this 
treatment makes stocky, well-rooted plants that 
command a better price than the untransplanted 
plants from the beds, though there is always an 
excellent market for all the products of the hot- 
bed. 



Hotbeds y Cold Frames and Flats 

Sowing Seed in Flats in the House 

Is the simplest, and least satisfactory form of 
advance work in the garden; it belongs in the 
class of being "better than nothing," but for some 
plants is quite as successful as a hotbed, unfor- 
tunately that particular class is not embraced in 
a book on vegetable gardening, but belongs par- 
ticularly to flower gardening and the special sorts 
dedicated to the warm conservatory and window 
garden. 

However, if one has not, and cannot achieve, 
the advantage of a hotbed then one must make 
the most of what is attainable and resort to flats. 
These may be of any shape or size, but the usual 
florists' flats — about fifteen inches wide and 
twenty long and not over five inches deep — are of 
a practical size for general use; narrower ones 
which may be set on a window sill are also useful 
but will not give a large number of plants. Very 
convenient plant boxes which simulate a minia- 
ture hotbed, being about six inches high in the 
back and about four in front, of the usual flat 

S3 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

size and supplied with a hinged lid of glass, are 
sold by the florists but are easily manufactured 
at home and are better than the open flats as 
they enable one to regulate moisture, the prin- 
cipal trouble — owing to the dry air of the living 
rooms, the shallowness of the soil, in growing 
plants in flats. 

Several holes for drainage should be made in 
the bottom of the boxes and these covered with 
pieces of shard or glass and the boxes filled to 
within a half inch of the top with a good compost 
consisting of fibrous loam — that shaved from the 
bottom of sods — leaf mould, clean white sand and 
a little well-rotted manure, all thoroughly mixed 
and free from roughage. 

The seeds should be broadcasted, if fine, drilled 
in if coarse, and the soil pressed down snugly over 
them. In the case of fine seed it is a good idea 
to cover with fine white sand instead of soil as 
this is less subject to the minute fungus which 
causes the deadly "damping off" so destructive 
to plant life and especially troublesome in grow- 
ing plants in the house. 

34* 



Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats 

As in the planting in the hotbed, the seed 
plots should be carefully labeled with name and 
date of sowing. After planting the seeds the 
flats should be set in a pan of water until the sur- 
face looks dark but not wet. They should then 
be covered with a sheet of white paper and glass 
and set in a warm, sunny window until ger- 
mination takes place. Then the glass should be 
raised sufficiently to admit air and the paper re- 
moved and placed between the box and the win- 
dow or a width of cheese cloth may be interposed 
between the glass and the box to temper the sun- 
light until the little plants have acquired their 
first pair of true leaves when they will be able to 
endure more heat and air which should be steadily 
increased until on mild days the window may be 
opened that they may benefit by full sunshine 
and air. As soon as the little plants are an inch 
high, transplant into other flats, setting an inch or 
more apart each way, and grow on as before or 
until they again crowd each other, when they may 
be transferred to small two or three inch pots and 
the sand box until time to go into the ground. 

35 



CHAPTER III 

PLANTING SEED IN THE OPEN GROUND 

IS important for it is just the form that most 
of the garden sowing will take. The sowing 
of seed in hotbeds and flats in the house is of 
much interest and importance, but the garden, 
for the most part, will go directly into the open 
ground, and upon the care and judgment with 
which the planting is done will depend the suc- 
cess of the season's work. 

The ground should be in as good condition for 
sowing as possible — neither too dry nor too wet. 
It should, and this is of much importance, be 
warm. The best of seed will not germinate if 
sown in wet, cold soil, especially is this true of 
peas and beans, failures with these being almost 
invariably due to too much haste in planting or 
unfavorable weather immediately following. It 
is no unusual thing in a cold, late spring for these 

36' 



Planting Seed in the Open Ground 

legumes to require repeated replanting and with 
the enormously advanced price of all kinds of 
seeds it wiH not pay to take too long chances by 
undue haste in planting. Usually it is quite safe 
to plant nearly all of the garden truck by the 
tenth of May at the north but the weather for 
the recent seasons has been unusual and much 
loss was occasioned by adhering too closely to an 
established schedule ; so, if the season promises to 
be in any way, except for earliness, abnormal, it 
is best to go slowly and not trust all one's seed to 
an initial planting but to hold a little in reserve 
to replant unfilled areas. Cutworms, too, have 
caused much devastation the past few seasons — 
usually these are troublesome to transplanted 
things, mainly cabbage, peppers and tomatoes, 
but last year they destroyed beans and other 
plants impartially, causing much loss. 

In planting a seed drill attached to a hand cul- 
tivator will be of great assistance as seed may be 
drilled in rows or dropped in hills at different dis- 
tances apart so rapidly that the entire garden 
may be planted in little more time than it takes 

37 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

to do an hundred foot row by hand, and the drill 
will do it better, opening up the rows, sowing the 
seed and covering all in one operation. If, how- 
ever, one is not possessed of this convenient imple- 
ment one can do very well without by removing 
one hoe of the hand cultivator, or by reversing 
both hoes and bringing the points together and 
opening a drill to receive the seed and covering it 
with the hoe or rake, or it may even be opened 
with a trowel, which though laborious, is a very 
effectual way. 

The soil must always be firmed above the seed 
after sowing, either by means of a flat piece of 
board, with a handle on one surface or, in the 
case of large seeds by tramping the rows with 
the feet ; this firming of the soil is most important, 
it brings the soil close about the seed so that 
the first little root — a very tiny, delicate little 
root, feeling its way about in search of nourish- 
ment can come at once into contact with the warm 
soil and obtain the food and moisture so critically 
needed at this juncture of its little life. The 
firming of the soil conserves the moisture, pre- 

38 



Planting Seed in the Open Ground 

venting the entrance of dry, hot ah', and to ob- 
tain this further the ground after being tramped 
down should be gone over hghtly with rake or 
trowel and a dust-mulch produced. In fact, all 
through one's gardening processes one must keep 
the dust-mulch in evidence for it means conser- 
vation of moisture and fertility and freedom from 
weeds. 

Seeds of different sizes, hardness and germina- 
tion qualities, require different treatment; fine 
seeds may be sown in shallow drills, scattering 
seeds whose germinary power is known to be low 
or questionable quite thickly in the drills; beets 
are usually sown quite freely, while radishes — 
nearly every seed of which may be trusted to 
grow — may be scattered at about the distance 
they are wanted to stand in the rows ; beans, too, 
may be dropped at about the distance they will 
require — six inches or more apart for limas, and 
as these seeds are sensitive to cold and damp- 
ness it is a wise precaution to set them on edge, 
eye down, in the drills. Seeds that germinate 
slowly, Hke peas, are hastened considerably by 

39 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

being soaked over night in warm water, and many 
seeds that require considerable time to start are 
hastened if warm water be poured into the 
trenches before the soil is filled in; this is espe- 
cially beneficial in very dry soil where germina- 
tion might otherwise be delayed until after a rain. 
It is not necessary that new seed be purchased 
every spring; if one has seed of his own saving 
so that its age is known one can use it with con- 
fidence. Seed purchased of the seedsman is more 
or less problematical, but is usually supposed to 
be of the previous season's crop, especially is this 
true of those seedsmen who produce their own 
seed on farms located in different sections of the 
country, and whose seeds are usually very reli- 
able. However there are many seedsmen, or 
jobbers, who purchase the bulk of their seeds in 
the open market and cannot guarantee the qual- 
ity in any way. It is always a great mistake 
to purchase cheap seed ; it is better to buy seed of 
a reputable seedsman who puts his name and rep- 
utation back of it, though the price may be consid- 

40 




■-« 



'^ 



^ 



Planting Seed in the Open Ground 

erably higher than one would pay for the same 
seed of the local store or seedsman. 

Where one has sufficient old seed of different 
kinds it is a good idea to test them out, during 
the late days of winter and so ascertain their fit- 
ness for use. The testing is a simple matter, 
warmth and moisture being all that is required. 
A long tray covered with an inch of sand kept 
moist may be marked off in squares and the seed 
it is desired to test scattered evenly over the sur- 
face, labehng or numbering each square, then a 
thick piece of flannel should be wet in warm water 
and placed snugly over all and the tray put 
in a warm place — back of the furnace, over a 
radiator or on the back of the kitchen reservoir 
if a fire is kept there all the time, until the seeds 
germinate; it will then be seen what proportion 
germinate and how freely one will need to sow 
in order to obtain a good stand of plants. If the 
supply of seed is large a germination test of 
seventy-five per cent, will justify its use but if 
there is only a hmited supply it will be better to 

41 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

purchase fresh seed or at least sufficient to sup- 
plement the home supply. It is always worth 
while to save one's own seed if the vegetables have 
exceptionally good qualities ; this insures trueness 
to name and often an improvement over the par- 
ent stock; it is not, however, desirable where a 
number of varieties of any vegetable is grown in 
the same garden as the seed is quite certain to be 
mixed and the good qualities of the parent stock 
to be lost. 

In sowing seed in the open ground cultivation 
should begin as soon as the seed is sown and cov- 
ered. In the case of large seed which is tramped 
down in the rows and covered an inch or more it 
is not always necessary to rake over the rows 
for a dust-mulch, rarely if it is likely to rain im- 
mediately. Under this condition the rows will 
be quite distinct and as soon as the rain is over 
and the ground slightly dried off the scuffle-hoe 
may be run along the rows restoring the dust- 
mulch, or creating one. Where the planting is 
shallow it is an excellent plan to drop radish 
seeds at intervals along the row as these will 

42 



Planting Seed in the Open Ground 

appear in from three to five days, thus marking 
the rows so that there will be no difficulty in fol- 
lowing them. When this is done it will not be 
necessary to use ground especially for planting 
radishes so that there will be a saving in room 
that may be utilized to advantage for other vege- 
tables. Lettuce, too, may be grown to advantage 
by planting a short strip of seed at the end of 
rows of other vegetables, where full rows are not 
required, as this saves space in the garden and 
the lettuce if placed at the ends of the rows near- 
est the house is easily accessible and does away 
with the necessity of walking on the garden after 
it has been cultivated, a thing the careful gar- 
dener avoids. 

With the intensive gardening practised on the 
small plot where the vegetables are planted in 
close rows from a foot to two feet apart, the 
ground should be at all times in a fine tilth, free 
from unworked strips and trodden paths. It is 
of little value to cut off the weeds with the hoe 
or cultivator if they are to be trodden back in 
the ground and so given a new lease of Hfe. The 

43 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

scuffle-hoe is a real boon to the gardener in obvi- 
ating this difficulty as in using it one walks back- 
wards, pushing the hoe from one instead of di-aw- 
ing it towards one as is done with the common 
garden hoe; this leaves a beautiful, clean tilth, 
absolutely free from trampled areas and nothing 
cut off by the hoe will take on a new lease of 
life over night. More real work can be accom- 
plished by the use of the scuffle than with any 
other tool in the garden; it does not supplant 
altogether the wheel cultivator but does its work 
when used alternately with it; the cultivator 
breaking up the soil to a greater depth, and more 
rapidly than the scuffle, but the latter destroys 
far more thoroughly all weeds and reaches closer 
to the plants, slipping underneath the leaves and 
close to the stems and routing out any and all 
weeds lurking there. The cultivator leaves the 
ground in ridges and aerates it, the scuffle levels 
it again and produces a fine dust-mulch which will 
preserve the moisture until another rain calls for 
the use of the cultivator. 

Unless the season is a very rainy one, one good 



Planting Seed in the Open Ground 

cultivation a week, either with scuffle or cultiva- 
tor, will keep the garden in excellent shape, but 
every rain MUST be followed by cultivation of 
some sort, for there is great loss of moisture if 
this is not done and weeds follow quickly after 
rain. 

The various weeds with which the garden is 
afflicted come at separate intervals — not all to- 
gether, and when one has eradicated one set of 
weeds there is usually a brief interval before the 
appearance of the next detachment. But one 
must have them continually in mind and keep 
a sharp lookout for the first tiny seedlings and 
destroy them before they have made even one 
pair of true leaves. Working around individual 
plants with a trowel or hand weeder has this ad- 
vantage that it spies out the enemy before it 
would attract attention if the rows were worked 
with hoe or cultivator. The severe thinning that 
such plants as beets, carrots, endive, salsify, onions 
and the like require clears the rows of weeds and 
helps materially in general cultivation. This 
thinning out should always be done prior to cul- 

45 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

tivating between the rows, then the paths are 
left clear and untrodden and -the garden is a de- 
light to look upon. A basket should be carried 
along the rows to drop the plants removed so 
that they may be out of the way when ready 
to run the cultivator. Nearly all plants which 
require thinning may be used in setting out fresh 
rows of vegetables and where there are vacant 
places in the rows the spaces may be filled up with 
plants removed from too crowded areas. 

The first weeds to appear in the spring are the 
chickweed and the malice ^ that has remained over 
from the previous year, being a perennial and a 
very hardy and persistent one; these two are 
ploughed under and give little or no trouble if 
the work has been well done. The new crop does 
not appear until late in the season — usually in 
July. Purslaine comes along in June and soon 
after appears that particular pest of the garden 
— red root. All these are very easily eradicated 
when small but the red root is an exceedingly 

1 Common name "malice" from its bad reputation; properly, 
mallow {malva rotundifolia) . 

46 



Planting Seed in the Open Ground 

hard weed to pull once it has got a grip on the 
ground and it must be taken out root and all 
or it will come up again with not one but several 
stout stalks, and a more tenacious hold than ever 
on the soil; it is one of the weeds which are con- 
stantly eluding detection until they have gained 
several inches in height when they defy the hoe 
and cultivator and call for strenuous hand work ! 
Many of the garden weeds may be utihzed for 
feeding stock. Belgian hares are fond of the 
fresh green leaves of malice and pigs enjoy both 
that and the purslaine and as the former comes at 
a time when there is little green feed available 
for the hares it may be pulled and fed rather 
than turned under. Ragweed is relished by 
horses and they will frequently go into a patch 
of it and eat it in preference to good clover grow- 
ing near by. 



47 



CHAPTER IV 

TRANSPLANTING 

TRANSPLANTING is one test of a good 
gardener, another is the care of the plants 
after they are gotten into the ground — the care- 
ful cultivation that forbids a weed to show its 
head above ground, or a crust to form on the soil 
after a rain ; these two successful operations spell 
success in the garden — their absence failure. 

For several days before the young plants in 
the hotbed are to be put into the ground they 
should be hardened by leaving the sash en- 
tirely off and by occasionally withholding water 
that they may be accustomed to the irregular 
water supply of the open ground, but the beds 
should be well watered the night before trans- 
planting that the plants may absorb enough mois- 
ture to carry them through the ordeal of trans- 
planting and that the soil may have sufficient 
moisture to adhere to the roots. 

48 



Transplanting 

The planting lines in the garden should be 
drawn and the holes for those plants which are 
to stand some distance apart — such as tomatoes, 
peppers and the like, should be already dug and, 
where extra fertilizing is called for, the hills en- 
riched with a good spadeful of well decayed 
manure and the ground all ready for the 
plants. In this way transplanting will go for- 
ward with the least possible delay and the plants 
will suffer little, if any, from the change. 

It is not at all necessary to wait for a rainy 
spell as so many think desirable; "the most suc- 
cessful planting can be done on a clear, bright 
day if the work is handled properly; indeed this 
is just the weather that gives best results, a period 
of rainy weather with cloudy intervals between is 
also favorable except for the discomfort of work- 
ing in the wet but when planting time comes 
one must not think too much of one's personal 
comfort, — it is up to one to get things into the 
ground and growing ; we can be comfortable later 
on when there is time for it. 

A rainy spell, broken by hot, sunshiny, muggy 

49 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

days is of all times the worst for transplanting; 
plants wilt and die in spite of one, fairly cooked 
by the hot steam engendered by the rain and sun- 
shine, and such planting weather should be 
avoided unless the season is late and the planting 
urgent. Only as many plants should be lifted 
at one time as can be put into the ground be- 
fore they wilt. Do not try to hft plants sep- 
arately but lift them in clumps, pressing the 
trowel well down below the roots and lifting the 
plants with as httle disturbance as possible — 
never pull up the plants by the tops as one some- 
times sees done ; this strips off the tender, fibrous 
roots on which the plant depends for gathering 
its food. The tap root which remains has little 
foraging value, it serves, principally, to hold the 
plant in the ground while the fine, lateral roots 
are busy collecting food to feed the growing top ; 
if these little feeding roots are destroyed the plant 
must make a new supply before top growth can 
be resumed. 

Do not attempt to separate the plants at once 
but carefully release each plant as it is required; 

50 



Transplanting 

in this way they retain their freshness and loss 
from wilting is minimized. 

Make a hole large and deep enough for the 
roots, setting them deeper than they were in the 
hotbed, and fill in part of the earth, pressing it 
down firmly, fill in the hole with water and when 
it has seeped away fill in the remainder of the 
earth, leaving it dry, fine and smooth about the 
plant. Each of these three operations may be 
completed for the entire row of plants before 
going on to the next: the plants set in the hole 
and the first earth drawn up, then all the holes 
filled with water and by the time the last hole 
is filled the first will be ready for final filling in 
with earth. This is a more efficient method than 
to complete one hole at a time and keeps the 
plants in better shape. 

When the whole planting of one variety of 
vegetable is completed go over them carefully, 
noting any wet spots that may appear on the 
surface and cover them with more dry earth. 
Remember that it is upon the integrity of the 
dry mulch that the success of the planting de- 

51 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

pends. Do not try to protect the plants in any- 
way; if sufficient water has been placed in the 
hole, the earth firmed sufficiently and an efficient 
dry mulch provided the plant will be much better 
off than if protected in any way. Do not water 
after transplanting until the plants have become 
established and need it. If for any cause some 
of the plants show signs of wilting while the dust- 
mulch is still perfect a hole should be made at 
one side of the plant and water poured in, re- 
covering the spot with dry earth. If it rains 
immediately after planting, clearing off with fair 
weather, the beds must be gone over with the 
scuffle-hoe to replace the dust-mulch as soon as 
it can be worked to advantage. One has only to 
bear in mind that the secret of successful planting 
is moisture at the roots and diy earth above to 
succeed. 



52 



CHAPTER V 

GARDEN TOOLS 

AKE SO important in the proper care of the 
garden and for the ease with which it 
may be worked that only the best should be con- 
sidered; the best, however, need not be the most 
expensive, but they should be the best adapted 
to the work to be attempted. It is not necessary 
that their number be large, indeed, the number of 
tools really indispensable is relatively small, but 
definite. A good steel garden rake will be one of 
the first tools required and this should be of the 
steel variety, neither too light nor too heavy. Get 
a good spade with a "D" handle that fits the hand 
and foot. A wheelbarrow of the wooden side- 
board construction will also be required ; to these 
will be added a garden line and a hand cultivator 
and as this is the most expensive and important 
tool its selection is of much moment. There are 

53 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

three forms of wheel hoes on the market: the 
high single wheel, the medium wheel and the low 
double wheel made to straddle the rows. The 
double wheeled machines have the advantage of 
working each side of the row, close to the plants 
as well as between the rows and if the hoes or 
cultivator teeth are properly adjusted will do 
twice the work of a single wheel. Some of the 
double wheeled cultivators are readily changed 
into single wheels by removing one wheel. Too 
high a wheel is not desirable, and as the wheel is 
the part of the cultivator that bears most of the 
strain it should be of substantial construction. 
Most of the machines on the market have as at- 
tachments a set of plough blades, fom- harrow 
teeth and hoe. My own — a Planet Junior, two- 
wheel cultivator has also an attachment for cre- 
ating a dust-mulch, similar to a scuffle-hoe, but 
this was made especially for the machine by a 
local blacksmith and is a very useful addition to 
the outfit. 

If one does not object to the extra expense a 
seeding attachment can be added that will min- 

54 



Garden Tools 

imize the work of planting the garden. A good 
machine with seeder that will plant in rows and 
with all the attachments can be purchased for 
$16.00 or the same machine which will sow in rows 
and also in hills 4, 6, 8, 12, or 24 inches apart 
can be purchased for $19.00 and is a good buy, 
for a good machine of this kind, if properly cared 
for, kept under shelter when not in use, oiled 
occasionally, the attachments kept sharpened and 
given an occasional coat of paint as required is 
good for twenty years at least. There are still 
cheaper machines on the market, single wheel 
implements with the usual attachments, that will 
do good work, for as httle as $5.25 and $7.50, and 
two wheelers at $10.00 and one single wheel that 
is especially designed for wear, with an iron in- 
,stead of wire wheel, built for service at $7.00. 

To this assortment of tools should be added a 
straight edged garden hoe, or any preferred 
shaped edge, and a scuffle-hoe. This last is ob- 
tainable in 6, 8, 9, and 10 inch blade and costs 
ninety cents for the 6 inch and $1.00 for the 
9 inch size; the ten inch does more rapid work 

55 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

and can be run between rows planted twelve to 
fifteen inches wide, clearing the entire space be- 
tween in one operation so that one goes over the 
ground very rapidly. Useful in any one's hands 
it is preeminently a woman's tool, no lame and 
aching back accompanies its use as one does not 
lean over in hoeing as with the common garden 
hoe. If I could have but one tool to garden with 
I think it would be a scuffle-hoe, for no other tool 
will keep the garden so free from weeds. With 
the common garden hoe my paths through the 
garden are usually marked by the wreckage of 
plants, for use as much care as I can sooner or 
later I get to hoeing too vigorously and off goes 
a cabbage, tomato or onion. The scuffle-hoe 
does not seem to arouse an excess of energy ; one 
goes along smoothly and serenely, leaving clean 
tilth and undepleted rows of vegetables in one's 
iwake and looking back at the end of each row sees 
that it is good. 

A trowel — or a number of them is better — is 
a very necessary implement and because one is 
prone to mislay trowels, or leave one at the hotbed 

56 



Garden Tools 

when going for plants it is well to have one for 
each place and either to attach it to a string to 
one's belt — if only one is possessed, or to attach 
a bright red cloth to the handle that it may be 
identified if dropped among weeds, loose earth 
or grass for the trowel seems to have a chameleon 
like nature and takes on the color of its sur- 
roundings and becomes invisible to the eye once 
it has left one's hand. The bright color will save 
many moments wasted time in looking for it and 
has proved its worth on more than one occasion. 
In purchasing a trowel selection should be made 
of the sort that has the blade and handle in one ; 
this construction, if of steel, will insure a tool that 
will last until worn out by use, the trowel with 
a wooden handle has usually a flimsy blade and 
a handle that is not dependable. 

A garden line and reel that may be pur- 
chased for $1?75 is a convenient thing to have 
when laying out lines for planting, but a very 
good substitute can be produced from an old 
broom handle and a ball of butcher's twine 
by sawing the handle into two eighteen inch 

57 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

lengths, boring a hole in one end of each 
piece and sharpening the other end, passing the 
ends of the cord through the hole and making a 
knot too large to slip through the hole, makes 
the line more convenient to handle than if tied 
around the stick, as it cannot slip in winding, or 
any ingenious boy with simple tools can copy the 
regular reel in a short time. A very simple, home 
made tool for marking rows equal distances apart 
consists of a straight pole of wood with a cross 
piece at one end, fifteen, eighteen or twenty-four 
inches on each end from the center pole and pro- 
vided with triangular pieces at the ends and in 
the center for markers, or wooden rake teeth may 
be set in holes provided for them. This is drawn 
along the ground and makes one, two or three 
.rows at one operation. The construction of two 
or three of these markers is a short job and they 
save a considerable amount of time in laying out 
the garden. The twenty-four inch marker can 
also be used for marking the twelve inch rows 
by adjusting the pegs. The hand cultivators 
with seeding attachments have also a marker 

58 



Garden Tools 

which while seeding one row marks out the fol- 
lowing one. 

A watering pot and some kind of spraying 
apparatus for the use of insecticides will also be 
needed. A rubber bulb with perforated metal 
top and bent neck, such as is used for spraying 
house plants is an excellent thing to use where 
the use of wood alcohol in indicated. Paris green 
may be applied from a fine-nosed watering pot if 
liquid form is used or if a dry application is pre- 
ferred a common mason quart can with the por- 
celain lining of the top removed and the latter 
punched full of holes makes an effective distrib- 
utor when filled with dry lime or flour and Paris 
green or hellebore. I have never seen a hand 
atomizer or spray pump or powder blow gun 
that was a particle of use; the tyrian sprinklers, 
however, are practical and useful for spraying in 
a small way for aphis, red spider and for squash 
bugs. A knapsack or auto-sprayer with gal- 
vanized iron reservoir can be purchased for $6.25, 
with brass reservoir for $9.50 and is a good in- 
vestment where there are small fruits — currants, 

59 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

gooseberries, and small trees — and is profitable 
for a neighborhood garden investment if one does 
not wish to go to the entire expense for a small 
garden. Something of the kind is indispensable 
where potatoes are grown, though for a small 
patch hand picking of bugs is preferable. A gar- 
den fork will be needed in the fall when the pota- 
toes, carrots, parsnips and other root vegetables 
are to be dug and as wide a one as available should 
be purchased as the more roots one can lift at a 
time the more quickly the work will progress. 
fA spading fork is very useful in the garden in 
loosening the earth about plants, planted a con- 
siderable distance apart, when heavy rain has 
beaten the earth down hard and is especially use- 
ful for cultivating about berry plants, young 
fruit trees and grape vines, where the use of a 
spade would injure the roots of the plant. 

A manure barrel, while not a tool, is a valuable 
accessory of the garden and its use will notably 
increase the yield of certain vegetables. A large 
lard barrel is a good sort to use and it must be 
prepared by burning out the lard which will 

60 



Garden Tools 

likely adhere to it, or it may be washed out with 
strong soapsuds or lye — a more tedious process. 
A hole large enough to receive a wooden spigot 
should be bored a couple of inches above the bot- 
tom of the barrel. The barrel should be placed 
on a firm support — a heavy wooden box answer- 
ing the purpose, high enough to allow a watering 
pot to stand beneath the spigot; three or four 
inches of straw are then placed in the bottom of 
the barrel for drainage and should come well 
above the spigot hole; the barrel is then filled 
full of manure and water turned in until brim- 
ming full ; a close cover to exclude flies completes 
the preparation. When the manure liquid is 
required it is only necessary to place the watering 
can in position, open the spigot and allow the 
liquid to run until the can is full. After drawing 
off a supply of liquid an equal amount of water 
should be returned to the barrel to keep it always 
full and ready for use. When first established 
the liquid will be very strong and it will be best 
to dilute it, using half water and half liquid, and 
liquid manure should never be used when the 

-61 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

ground is dry, but always after a rain or arti- 
ficial watering. 

A barrel once filled can be used over and over 
again until the liquid begins to appear pale in 
color, when the manure should be removed from 
the barrel and fresh supplied. If there is only 
a limited demand for this fertilizer, one filling 
will last out the summer, but where there are a 
number of uses for it it will need one or more 
renewals. Any kind of animal manure may be 
used — that from the horse stable being usually 
the most available but use may be made of the 
manure from the cow stable, the sheep pen or 
the rabbit hutches, but not from the poultry 
houses as this form is too strong to be used in 
liquid form, though its use in dry form is ex- 
cellent for many vegetables. 

Tomato supports are among the useful ad- 
juncts of the garden and very good home made 
ones can be provided by utilizing the wire hoops 
that come around barrels, stapling them to four 
stout stakes; by their use a considerably larger 

62 



Garden Tools 

number of plants can be grown in a given area 
and the care and gathering of the fruit will be 
far pleasanter than where the vines are allowed 
to lie on the ground. 



63 



CHAPTER VI 

HOLDING AND INCREASING THE FERTILITY 
OF THE SOIL 

THERE is no one thing that the gardener 
so needs to keep always in mind of more 
importance than that the soil needs additional fer- 
tility; it does not matter how good it may have 
been originally or how good it was last year ; this 
year it must have returned to it the food that was 
taken from it last year by the crop that was grown 
upon it. Any soil that is not virgin soil — soil that 
has never been used, and that sort of soil is not 
available in towns and villages if, indeed, it is 
anywhere in an old, settled country like ours — 
must have returned to it, year after year, an equi- 
valent of the fertility extracted from it in grow- 
ing the previous season's crop. It may be that 
the loss of many seasons must be made good, it 
may be that the soil was originally deficient in 
many, or only one, of the elements that make fer- 

64 



Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 

tility; probably it will lack that most important 
element of productive soil — humus. Humus, be 
it understood, is that element in the soil that 
causes it to appear dark. What it really consists 
of is decayed vegetable matter and it is always 
found forming the top soil of virgin, or unculti- 
vated land. It is present in large amounts in 
woodlands where the falHng leaves and surface 
growth lie on the ground, year after year, and de- 
cay and form what is technically known as leaf 
mould. We know how admirably it is adapted 
to the growing of house plants, and its value is 
often erroneously attributed to the plant food it is 
supposed to contain, but its great value is not so 
much in its food content as its influence on the 
soil with which it is combined; by its presence it 
makes the soil retentive of moisture and this 
moisture in turn unlocks the chemical elements 
,of the soil so that they become available for food. 
Soils that are deficient of humus, though other- 
wise fertile, dry out so badly in summer that un- 
less artificially watered, they will produce little, 
and even where a sufficient water supply is avail- 

65 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

able the result will fall far short of what would 
have been produced were the supply of humus 
sufficient. 

Fortunately there are waj^s of restoring the 
humus to worn out soils and on the small area 
of the kitchen garden the process presents little 
if any difficulty. The most readily available 
source of humus is found in a liberal application 
of barnyard manure; this for the quickest and 
most satisfactory results should be well rotted, 
but not fired or leached — that is, it should have 
been saved in such a way that the rain has not 
washed the fertility out of it in the form of 
liquid manure, or lack of moisture caused it to 
heat and burn. The most satisfactory method 
of handling manure is under shelter in a cement 
bottom pit with a depression or well for the liquid 
contents to drain into ; this is seldom available in 
the town or city garden, but an enclosed pen for 
the manure, where it can be kept in a compact 
pile and where water can be turned on often 
enough to prevent firing, answers verj^ well; bet- 
ter still is it to draw the manm-e on the land as it 

66 



Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 

is produced ; this, too, is seldom practicable in the 
small garden, but a heavy dressing of manure can 
always be applied in the fall, spread evenly and 
allowed to lie and rot over winter and be turned 
under in the spring while it is wet. The rapidity 
of decay, and hence the availability of the plant 
food it contains of any vegetable matter turned 
under in a garden is greatty increased if it is 
turned under wet, dry material turned under 
rots very slowly and may be a detriment rather 
than a help to the crops that are gi-own over it 
(that season. If a plant sends its roots down into 
a mass of dry leaves, straw or other material it 
has no chance to gain either moisture or nourish- 
ment and must exist on what little its surface 
roots can extract from the top layer of soil. 

In spading manure into a small strip of land 
or a bed I usually allow at least one large wheel- 
barrow to a square yard and this proportion 
jshould be observed for the whole garden. Prac- 
tically about twenty tons of manure per acre 
will be required for good results, market garden- 
ers often use far more, or a large, two horse load 

67 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

for a strip of land fifty feet square. If the land 
is light and sandy the manure should be well 
rotted but on clay or heavy tenacious soil fresh 
manure gives better results as it breaks apart the 
particles of the soil, by the expansion caused bj^ 
heating, and adds sand, which is also a mechanical 
disintegrant, permanent in effect. 

There is another way in which humus can be 
immediately supplied and that is by applications 
of woods earth or marsh earth-muck, directly to 
the soil. Where a supply of either form of hu- 
mus is available it pays well to employ it. For a 
number of years I made a practice of keeping 
track of available soui'ces of humus, noting as 
I drove about the country where new land was 
being broken up and especially where marsh 
land was being ditched and drained; then in 
the spring I would engage the owner to haul 
me as many loads as I required, but as the time 
passed it became necessary to go farther and 
"arther afield until the cost of hauling became pro- 
hibitive. 

There has been considerable discussion of late 
68 



Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 

in agi'icultural papers as to the value of raw 
muck when applied to the land. Muck in its 
unsubdued state is more of a fuel-peat than a 
fertilizer; it needs to be subdued by lying out 
over winter so that the frost may disintegrate 
it and make it available for plant food, but I 
have found that it may be made immediately 
available in its raw state by burying or covering 
it with a layer of soil to exclude the air and re- 
tain moisture; in this form it gradually changes 
to humus and plants grown in it do exceedingly 
well. Among interesting experiments conducted 
to test its use was this conclusive one: deep 
holes were dug in beds that were to be planted 
to bedding plants — cannas, salvias and the like; 
these holes were filled with the raw muck and 
covered with the soil of the garden and into this 
the plants were set and the usual culture fol- 
lowed; the results were surprising; salvias, that 
ordinarily made a growth of about thirty inches 
reached the astonishing height of nearly five feet 
and were a mass of blooms ; still more astonishing 
results were discovered in clearing the beds in 

69 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

the fall when it was found that the muck had 
practically disappeared, the plants -having lit- 
erally consumed it. Left on the surface of the 
soil the muck would have dried into a hard, in- 
tractable mass, fit only for fuel. 

If one had a supply of raw muck available and 
wished to apply it to the garden it could be han- 
dled by following the plough and shovelling the 
muck into the open furrow; the next furrow 
turned would cover it. It would be of much 
benefit and would be turned to the surface again 
in the following spring ploughing. This should 
not be expected to take the place of barnyard 
manure, as it would lack some elements contained 
in that but it could be combined with such com- 
mercial fertilizers as the condition of the soil 
might suggest — lime, for instance, ixiight be in- 
dicated by the sourness of the soil. If sorrel is 
plentiful on the ground it is a pretty good indica- 
tion that lime is in order, but one need not depend 
upon its presence for data as these may be quickly 
attained by the use of blue litmus paper which 
may be obtained of any druggist. Its use is sim- 
ple ; if the soil is very wet, simply pressing a strip 

70 



Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 

of litmus paper down into it and examining it 
in an hour's time will indicate, according as it 
retains its color or turns pink — the acid reaction 
— the presence of acidity in the soil, or a cupful of 
the soil may be mixed with water to a thin paste 
and the paper inserted with the same diagnosis. 
Lime is more in the form of a stimulant or in- 
direct fertilizer than a real plant-food; it is in a 
medical sense an alterative, changing the nature 
of the soil. It not only sweetens, but mechan- 
ically, it binds loose soil, but flocculates or opens 
up tenacious clayey soils, affording freer passage 
of air and water and lessening the tendency to 
wash. It should be appHed, on Hght, sandy soils 
at the rate of about five hundred pounds per acre 
or twenty-five pounds to every fifty square feet 
of garden plot; ten times this amount can be 
used on a heavy clay soil, but liming of the soil 
is not necessary every year, about once in five 
being desirable, so that considered as an expense 
it is nearly negligible. Slaked lime is best, and 
wood ashes, which contain about thirty-four per 
cent, of lime, are valuable aids in building up the 
fertility of the soil. They should not, however, be 

71 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

mixed with the manure or applied at the same 
time as they tend to release the ammonia con- 
tained in the manure and as ammonia spells 
nitrate — the most costly of all our commercial 
fertilizers — the ashes should rather be broad- 
casted over the ground after the manure is turned 
in and then mixed with the soil by dragging and 
harrowing. 

There are fourteen different chemical elements 
that are necessary for plant growth — carbon, 
hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sul- 
phur, chlorine, sihcon, calcium, iron, potassium, 
sodium, magnesium and manganese; the first 
four are derived directly or indirectly from the 
air, the remainder from the soil. Virgin soil con- 
tains all these soil-derived elements in available 
form and in sufficient quantities for plant growth, 
and it has the power to absorb the elements which 
are derived from the air, but our short sighted 
methods of soil cultivation, or robbery, deplete 
the soil of some of its elements faster than it can 
convert them into available food for the plants. 
Liberal applications of manure replace the loss 
more quickly and economically than any other 

72 



Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 

treatment and if this is supplemented with such 
chemical elements as the soil may seem to be 
particularly in need of the fertility of the soil 
will be assured. 

The most economical and practical treatment 
of the soil would be through the analysis of the 
soil by a soil chemist ; this can readily be done by 
sending a sample of the soil to your state agri- 
cultural college which will analyze and advise 
as to its requirements, or a sample can be given 
to your county agent who will attend to it and 
advise you. In this way one works intelligently 
and wastes neither time nor money in experiments 
with no definite aim. 

Not all of the fourteen different chemical el- 
ements required for plant food need to be arti- 
ficially supplied; there are but three important 
elements which we need to consider in this con- 
nection — nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash 
and only one of these may be lacking ; a soil anal- 
ysis will indicate which one. Nitrogen is the 
most expensive of the three; it is available, com- 
mercially, in three forms — organic nitrogen, 
ammonia and nitrates. The organic nitrogen is 

73 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

commonly and most economically derived from 
tankage and dried blood — by-products of slaugh- 
ter-houses — dried fish, and refuse from fish can- 
neries and cottonseed meal; they contain, ap- 
proximately — in dried blood, ten to fifteen per 
cent.; tankage, seven to nine; dried fish, seven 
to eight; cottonseed meal, six to seven per cent. 
These decay rapidly when added to the soil and 
are particularly valuable when applied to light 
soils, where nitrates or ammonia leach too rap- 
idly and should not be apphed until the crops 
are up and growing. They make available dur- 
ing their processes of fermentation the phosphoric 
acid and potash already present in the soil. Sul- 
phate of ammonia, containing about twent}^ per 
cent, of nitrogen is a valuable chemical form 
in which to secure nitrogen as it does not leach 
from the soil as nitrate of soda does and so can be 
made available by the plant without loss. 

Phosphoric acid is found commercially in the 
form of superphosphates; these come from phos- 
phate rocks and are first ground, then treated 
with sulphuric acid. Bone is rich in phosphoric 
acid and is a very excellent form in which to sup- 

74 



Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 

ply this element to the garden, as it is obtained in 
several forms — raw bone, coarsely ground, fine 
ground and bone meal. One may by applying two 
or more grades secure the fertility of the garden 
for several years as raw bone decays slowly and 
will give results for a period of four years while 
bone meal is immediately available. Potash is 
most economically supplied by applications of 
wood ashes. But it must be borne in mind that 
the use of commercial fertilizers is not intended 
to replace that of barnyard manure, but rather 
to supplement it until the soil has regained what 
it has lost by poor management. Commercial 
fertilizers will of themselves produce a crop, but 
it is at the expense of the after-fertility of the 
land, just as the application of the whip will spur 
a jaded horse to one more final effort. Liberal 
applications of manure, leaf mould or muck and 
bone meal will bring any land that has soil at all, 
up to a satisfactory condition of fertility in a 
very few years. 

Nor is it necessary to go far afield for the 
humus for so small a piece of land as a kitchen 
garden for the material for the finest kind of 

75 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

mould lies right at hand in every bit of outdoors. 
What nature does in a field and woods she will 
do in one's dooryard if one will only watch her 
methods and co-operate with her. In the woods, 
for instance, she shakes down the ripe leaves from 
the trees, cuts with frost and age the undergrowth 
and sends the wind to drift them into piles where 
she waters and compacts them until in process 
of time they lose their identity as leaves and 
plants and become a fine, black mould, fine and 
warm to the touch and blended with a clean, 
sharp, white sand, or silicate. To imitate her 
methods successfully we have only to collect the 
dead leaves in the fall instead of wastefully burn- 
ing them, pile them in a heap in some convenient 
place ; surround them with a frame to keep them 
from being distributed about the premises by 
fowls or wind and to the nucleus thus formed 
add any waste matter — animal or vegetable — 
that will decay, about the place — the weeds from 
the garden, the wastings from the house and 
laundry. It is amazing, once one has started 
to conserve fertility, how much one can find to 
add to this compost heap ; I recall that one spring, 

76 



Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 

from a well-tended compost heap and one horse 
stable, I had hauled on to the garden ten large, 
two-horse loads of fertilizer, and put the garden 
in excellent shape, and not only this, — it had kept 
the premises tidy as nothing else would have 
done. The gatherings of the summer and fall 
will, by spring, have rotted down into available 
form and the action of the soil, sun and rain will 
complete the process. 

The growing of pet stock on a place adds so 
greatly to the upkeep of the land that it consti- 
tutes an object in itself. Poultry is an abundant 
source of manure which may be composted in 
barrels with alternate layers of soil, of lime or 
of any absorbent material or may be piled on the 
compost heap and mixed with the vegetable mat- 
ter. To this will be added the litter from the 
hen house floors which is rich in di'oppings and 
full of earth and ground up leaves and straw. 
But another source of manure, not enough con- 
sidered, is found in the droppings from the rabbit 
hutches. If one raises Belgian hares, as every 
one who wishes to conserve meat, should, one 
will find that, in addition to a supply of delicious 

77 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

meat, one has also produced a valuable garden 
asset in the form of a highly concentrated 
manure; one will also find that one has prac- 
tically done away with all waste from the garden 
,as the hares will have consumed all the unusable 
parts of the vegetables — all such early things that 
grun to seed, as lettuce, endive, swiss chard and 
the like. A large part of the weeds incident to 
a garden will also be consumed if pulled and 
offered them, thus minimizing the weed growth 
for the coming year, as every weed consumed 
means just so many less to appear the following 
year. It will be many years before the lesson 
of the home garden so insistently brought before 
us by the war will be lost, but we shall not have 
gained the full measure of its lesson if we do 
not realize that the critical shortage of meat 
is not up to the farmer and stockman altogether, 
but is a matter for each individual householder to 
adjust by producing, as far as his environment 
will permit, his own meat supply, by raising 
chickens and hares if only room for small stock is 
available, and pork if it is possible to find room 
and feed for a pig — and a pig does not require 

78 



Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 

a great amount of room — a six by eight pen will 
do and a paddock, with grass and fresh water, 
which need not be more than two rods square, 
and reasonable attention to sanitation will render 
him a contented and unobjectionable member of 
the family and a very savory and profitable mem- 
ber, too, come butchering time. These three 
things should go hand in hand; — A garden to 
produce vegetables for the family; live stock to 
consume the waste from the garden and live stock 
to furnish fertility for the garden; these three 
spell fertility for the soil and prosperity for the 
family. 

Where the supply of manure is limited so that 
the entire garden area cannot be covered, quite 
as good returns may be secured by following the 
plough with a load of any manure available, and 
dropping it in the furrow that will correspond 
with the planting row — if for corn, every three 
feet of furrows, setting stakes to indicate the fer- 
tilised strips. In a small garden fertiliser may 
be trundled along in a wheelbarrow and shovelled 
in with fork or spade. This is an excellent plan 
in preparing ground for peas. 

79 



CHAPTER VII 

ASPARAGUS 

IS one of the garden assets. Once established 
an asparagus bed is good for a lifetime, al- 
most; certainly it is a permanent feature of the 
garden, showing little if any deterioration if well 
cared for and kept free from weeds. 

The starting of an asparagus bed is not the 
serious undertaking it was a few years ago, as 
the deep planting then thought so necessary is 
seldom practised now; instead it is thought suffi- 
cient to open a furrow — with the plough, if the 
planting is large, with the spade, if small — set the 
plants and fill enough earth to cover the crown 
of the plant, and, as growth starts, to gradually 
fill up the furrow until the ground is level. The 
ground should be of the best and heavily fer- 
tilised before planting, for asparagus is a gross 

80 



Asparagus 

feeder and an additional application of coarse 
ground bone in each hill is well worth while as 
it furnishes food for two or three years inde- 
pendently of such annual dressing as the bed may 
receive. 

For garden culture where hand cultivation is 
to be practised, the plants may be set in hills 
two or three feet apart each way, leaving room 
to cultivate between each way for the first few 
years. Two year old roots are the best to use 
and in planting a little mound of earth should 
be made in each hill, the roots of the plant spread 
out around this so that the earth will fit in be- 
neath, close to the under side of the crown, then 
the earth should be firmed about the roots, a 
handful of bone meal sprinkled over the soil and 
the remainder of the soil filled in. Asparagus 
beds may be set in spring or fall; good results 
follow either setting. The asparagus bed must 
be kept free of weeds and grass from the start 
as once allowed to become infested with foul seed 
and grass it is a very discouraging proposition. 
One of the worst weeds to combat is the young 

81 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

asparagus plants which come up every year from 
self-sown seed; to avoid this the tops should be 
cut, as soon as the berries are red, and burned. 
If the tops are burned on the bed the resulting 
ashes will be of benefit. It has been my obser- 
vation for many years that the spots where the 
tops were burned always gave finer stalks than 
the rest of the bed; this suggests the application 
of wood ashes as a top dressing after the dressing 
of manure, which should be applied every 
spring, has been worked into the soil. A heavy 
covering of barnyard manure may be applied in 
the fall and spaded under in the spring, or it 
may be applied in February; if this is not feas- 
ible it is an excellent plan to spade into the space 
between the hills any available manure — poultry, 
rabbit or sheep or stable manure that is well 
rotted. The space between the rows, or paths, 
should not be broken up when this is done as, if 
unbroken and hard, it is easier to keep the beds 
clean and an application of some good herbicide 
may even be used to keep down weeds here. 
When the bed has been thoroughly spaded and 

82 



Asparagus 

enriched in this way in the early part of the 
season I have found the after care of the bed 
very much more successful than when all over 
culture was attempted. 

The variety to plant is largely a matter of 
taste — some prefer the green, some the white 
grasses. Lately a preference is being shown for 
the green. These will always be preferred by 
those who like a tender asparagus. The white 
sorts — Bonvilete and Argenteuile — are unbeliev- 
ably tough as they appear in the market though 
beautifully white and of mammoth proportions 
that make them verj^ attractive; possibly if cut, 
as the green grasses are, just below the level of 
the ground they would prove more edible. All 
asparagus is tough below the ground, green as 
well as white, and, for this reason, should not be 
cut much lower than the surface. 

Of the green grasses Conover's Colossal and 
Dreer's Eclipse are excellent sorts, and Colum- 
bian Mammoth White is a white variety that is 
good. 

If one wishes young plants for setting one can 
83 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

obtain them very easily by cutting the tops of 
asparagus when the berries are nearly ripe and 
piling them in some convenient place where the 
ground is mellow and free from weeds and grass 
and leaving them undisturbed for a year; the 
seeds will germinate and produce a large quantity 
of thrifty young plants that later may be taken 
up and set where desired, and all without any care 
or labor further than the cutting of the tops. 

One may begin cutting the asparagus when the 
bed is two years old, though small stalks will be 
produced at that age. Cutting at this age should 
not extend over a period of two weeks and in 
an established bed should be limited to four. All 
small stalks should be cut and not allowed to grow 
during the cutting period as they would exhaust 
the plant if allowed to grow, but when the cutting 
period is over they should, of course, be allowed 
to grow. 

Salt was formerly considered essential to suc- 
cessful asparagus culture and certainly does no 
harm, but its chief value is in keeping down weeds 
and this can be quite as successfully done by 

84. 



Asparagus 

hand cultivation; this is better than to form 
the habit of depending on some quick, laborless 
road to clean beds — in the annals of gardening 
"There ain't no such animule." 



85 



CHAPTER VIII 

EARLY SPRING VEGETABLES 

MAY be classified under two heads : those 
that remain in the ground over winter and 
are ready for use as soon as the frost is out of 
the ground and those vegetables that, owing to 
the short time required to bring to matui'ity, 
are first available from the present year's plant- 
ing; among the first may be cited such forais as 
asparagus, parsnips, salsify, parsley, kale, onions 
and a few others. 

The latter class include such vegetables as beets, 
lettuce, radishes, endive and early peas, all of 
which may be planted as soon as the ground can 
be worked in spring, but for very earliest results 
use should be made of the hotbed, sowing the 
seed in February or March according to the lat- 
itude and transplanting as soon as the ground can 
be worked in spring. By doing this from three 
to six weeks' time may be gained. At the same 

86 



Early Spring V egetables 

time that plants from the hotbeds are trans- 
planted seed may be sown in the open ground 
in adjoining rows or as a continuation of a 
short row of transplants, to come into use about 
the time the first planting is exhausted; in this 
way a succession may be maintained and the 
ground made to produce a more profitable 
amount of vegetables as seed may be sown where 
the transplanted vegetables were grown as soon 
as they are removed. 

BEETS 

Which may be planted in open ground as soon 
as it can be worked in spring, do best on a fibrous 
loamy soil, but any good, warm, rich loam will 
grow them satisfactorily; the cleaner the ground 
and the more thorough the cultivation, however, 
the more uniform the crop which will be produced. 
Sow the seed in drills fifteen to twenty inches 
apart and about I/2 inch deep, covering and 
tramping down the rows. It is customary to 
sow the seed rather freely when sown by hand, 
but if the seed is good rather better results follow 

87 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

sowing with a seeder, owing to the more even 
distribution and the lessened amount of thinning 
required; if vegetables of this class did not need 
thinning their cultivation would be robbed of 
its chief burden; unfortunately they do need it 
and quite drastic thinning at that ; thinning should 
commence as soon as the beets are large enough 
to handle, leaving them standing about one inch 
apart. In about two weeks another thinning 
may be given. By this time the young beets will 
be large enough for greens and they may be 
thinned to stand two inches apart in the row; 
a third thinning will be final and should leave 
about four inches between the beets; this will 
allow room for full maturity and perfectly 
formed roots. Beets are at their best when about 
an inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter and 
this is the size which is utilized for canning ; when 
used of this size about an inch of the top may be 
left on and they are served whole, di'essed with 
butter and seasoning. 

The old Egyptian beet has long been acknowl- 
edged as standard, but Crosby's Egyptian is a 

88 



Early Spring Vegetables 

distinct improvement upon the old form. It is 
earlier, the color fine and the quality very sweet 
and tender. Early Model beet is a new comer 
with an excellent reputation and both are good 
selections for the home or the market garden. 

In sowing in the hotbed it is not necessary 
to cover more than a fourth of an inch; scatter 
the seed thinly and transplant in about three 
to four weeks from the sowing of the seed, or 
when the plants and weather make the successful 
planting most assured; set the plants about an 
inch to an inch and a quarter apart and in using 
remove every other one; this leaves abundant 
room for them to develop and makes cultivating 
and freedom from weeds more assured. 

A light application of nitrate of soda will work 
wonders in gi'owing early beets; scatter the ni- 
trate thinly along the rows and cultivate in, or 
the nitrate may be dissolved in water and apphed 
from a watering can, care being taken to apply 
to the soil only and not to the plants. A hand- 
ful of nitrate, about the usual quantity apphed 
to a two-gallon watering-pot of water, will be 

89 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

sufficient, or a hundred pounds to the acre — 
this would amount to about twenty-five pounds 
to the ordinary garden. 

Beets may be sown for succession up to the 
middle of July and will mature a crop for winter 
use. Late sown beets are less care to cultivate 
owing to the fact that the season's crop of weeds 
is by that time pretty well under control. 

SWISS CHARD 

Has been for several years much exploited by 
seedsmen as the one indispensable vegetable for 
the city garden. It is no doubt a dependable 
source of greens, making a rapid gro\^i;h of suc- 
culent leaves and is one of the showy, effective 
things in the garden that gives an air of abun- 
dance and successful gardening unsurpassed by 
any other vegetable, but, in my opinion, its merit 
ends right there and if it were not for its value in 
furnishing green food in the greatest quantity in 
the least time I should not give it space in the gar- 
den ; the mid-rib, so much recommended for cook- 
ing like asparagus, has an unpleasant, earthy 

90 



Early Spring Vegetables 

taste that, to me at least, is very disagreeable. 

Its culture, however, is so easy that it is worth 
while for any one who likes it to grow it. It can 
be planted in the open ground as soon as the 
ground can be worked in the spring, or sown in 
the hotbed and transplanted, thus gaining three 
weeks or more; sow in drill, scattering the seed 
thinly and thin out the plants to stand six inches 
apart in the rows. A light dressing of nitrate 
of soda will hasten the gi'owth and render the 
leaves more tender and succulent. This plant 
does not need to have successive sowings made 
as by cutting down to the ground it will make a 
new growth, and the outside leaves may be gath- 
ered, the same as is done with spinach, and so 
produce a continuous gi'owth of tender, crisp 
leaves. 

There are two varieties of the chard, the Giant 
Lucullus and the Silver Beet; the latter variety 
being more delicate in flavor, having less of the 
earthy taste. A novel variet}^ — a cross between 
the Swiss Chard and the table beet — is now of- 
fered by Luther Burbank which combines with 

91 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

the usual chard quahties, much beauty of foliage, 
the leaves being gorgeous in pink, yellow, green 
and white and it would certainly add to the joy 
of gardening to have so beautiful a thing to tend, 
for this reason and because the bunnies must have 
food, I am growing it in my garden this year. 



CHINESE CABBAGE 

Though not a spring vegetable it is so similar 
in some respects to Swiss Chard that it may well 
be a companion vegetable. It much resembles 
the Romaine or Coss lettuce in its lush, upright 
leaves. It should not, however, be planted until 
about the first of July as early plantings run 
quickly to seed and do not develop the fine big 
leaves of the type. It may be planted in short 
xows and transplanted to about nine inches apart 
when large enough to handle. Nitrate is again 
indicated for this quick-growing, succulent plant 
and as soon as the leaves have attained consid- 
erable size they should be confined by tying with 
bast or strips of soft cloth, to prevent their falling 

92 



Early Spring Vegetables 

apart rather than to blanch them. The outer 
leaves may be gathered as they mature, leaving 
the inner leaves to gi'ow and be gathered later. 
It is eaten raw or cooked like cabbage, being 
more delicate in flavor and without the objection- 
able cabbage odor when cooking. The large, 
fleshy midribs, stripped off the leaf, may be eaten 
raw with salt like celery or cooked like asparagus. 
When tied up the plant much resembles a very 
large, handsome stalk of celery, but with big, 
broad leaves instead of the feathery fronds of the 
latter plant. 

ENDIVE 

Classes with the foregoing vegetables, requir- 
ing practically the same treatment. It should 
be started in the hotbed for early use, trans- 
planting to the open ground when the weather 
is favorable. As it does not make very rapid 
growth at first it may as well remain under the 
favorable guardianship of the warm hotbed until 
the middle of May, when it should be trans- 
planted in rows, setting the plants six inches or 

93 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

more apart. When the plants are about two- 
thirds grown they must be drawn together and 
tied for blanching, without which they are unfit 
to use; this must be done when the plants are 
perfectly dry — in the middle of a bright, sunny 
forenoon, being the best time for the work, other- 
wise they will rot as they are very sensitive to 
moisture and prone to decay — as a Japanese 
friend said of chrysanthemum seed; — "They are 
very corruptible." 

They are a most acceptable addition to salads 
and combine acceptably with lettuce having a 
tangj" bitterness very piquant, but it is as a gar- 
nish that they excel; the fringed and curled 
fronds, pure white or tinged with green in the 
less well-blanched specimens, are beautiful in- 
deed and they may well be grown for this alone. 

Covering with boards is sometimes resorted to 
instead of tying, two boards being laid along 
either side of the row to form a cap. It takes 
about three weeks to property blanch endive and 
the plants should be used as soon as ready. If 
desired plants may be taken up in the fall and 

94 



Early Spring Vegetables 

planted in pots or boxes and placed in a light 
warm cellar or an upstairs window for winter use. 
As the endive makes a mass of fibrous roots it 
can be hfted without in any way checking its 
growth. 

The Giant Fringed Endive is one of the best 
kinds. The Self -blanching Endive is not a satis- 
factory sort as it lacks the beautiful color of the 
blanched sort and is more prone to run to seed; 
either sort when running up can be cut and fed 
to the rabbits and so turned to good account, in 
fact I consider it worth planting for this purpose 
alone. The Staghorn Endive is an excellent 
sort for spring gi'owing as, started in the hotbed 
and transplanted, it does not run to seed — a fault 
most other varieties are addicted to; this sort 
may be planted for early salads and the Giant 
Fringed later for fall and winter. Like all 
plants which depend upon rapid growth for crisp- 
ness and flavor an application of nitrate is ben- 
eficial to endive and mellow, rich soil should be 
selected for its gi^owth. 



95 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

LETTUCE 

For the very earliest use plant seed in hotbed 
and transplant to open ground about the middle 
of May, setting the plants about a foot apart 
if head lettuce is desired and, of course, no one 
who is acquainted with the superior excellence 
of head lettuce over the leaf variety will care to 
grow the latter. There are so many excellent 
varieties of lettuce on the market that one hes- 
itates to recommend any special sort but some 
are more reliable headers than others. One of 
the surest headers and an excellent sort to plant 
in summer as it is more resistant of heat than 
most sorts, is the Improved Hanson; this variety 
makes a large, globe-shaped head, so compact 
that the inner leaves are beautifully blanched and 
the quality is excellent. For those who like a 
brown-leaved lettuce and in my opinion this sort 
excels in flavor all others, the old May King is one 
of the best and should always find a place in the 
garden whatever other varieties are grown. It 
is not as large as lettuce and permits of closer 

96 



Early Spring Vegetables 

planting than Hanson or All Season^ — another 
most excellent head lettuce — a sure header and 
slow to run to seed ; it makes an immense head — 
almost as large as a Flat Dutch Cabbage, with 
beautifully blanched inner leaves and a fine, 
buttery flavor. 

Of the loose-leaved lettuce the Grand Rapids 
Forcing Lettuce is the best known. This is a 
good sort to grow in the hotbed and may be 
allowed to remain after the other vegetables are 
removed, resetting to stand a few inches apart. 
The leaves are upright and loose, beautifully 
green and curled and the flavor crisp and de- 
licious. It may be grown to use while the other 
sorts are heading. 

Romaine or Coss Lettuce is the sort served in 
the big hotels as Romaine salad. It requires 
transplanting either from the hotbed to the open 
ground or from the seed row in the open ground 
to another row. It should stand about four 
inches apart in the row as the growth is upright, 
rather than spreading, and when of sufficient 
size the leaves must be tied together to blanch. 

97 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

It is very crisp and delicious lettuce when quickly- 
grown by the aid of much fertilizer, good culture 
and moisture, but lacking these is rather tough 
and bitter. Nitrates may be used to advantage, 
applied along the rows after the plants are 
transplanted. 

All lettuce is at best in spring and early sum- 
mer. It is very difficult to grow good lettuce in 
hot weather. If a width of cheese cloth is 
stretched over the row and the soil kept moist 
much better results can be secured. Leaf lettuce 
is more easily managed in mid-summer than head 
lettuce and unless one can give special attention 
this is a better sort to sow for succession. 

ONIONS 

Are an all-the-year-round vegetable and be- 
long to each season according to how they are 
handled. For green onions, early in spring, the 
White Potato, or Multiplier, Onions are deserv- 
edly popular; these are usually raised from sets 
planted in drills where they are to form a per- 
manent bed and cultivated during summer; they 

98 



Early Spring Vegetables 

form a clump of tender shoots which are ready 
for use in May. If, however, the bed is neglected 
and allowed to form sod or weeds the onions de- 
teriorate and become tough and woody; their prin- 
cipal merit consists in their earliness. For first 
class bunching onions, however, onions with bot- 
toms, one should sow seed in August in a fine, 
clean seed bed that has been heavily manured, 
scattering the seed thinly in drills one foot or fif- 
teen inches apart and thin the plants to stand 
two inches apart in the rows. .Onions are quite 
hardy and will usually winter without protection 
but in severe climates a light covering of straw 
or of evergreen boughs will be beneficial; this 
practice gives very fine green onions early in 
the spring. 

Another practice, very satisfactory for the 
home garden, consists in planting in early spring 
the old onions placed in storage for winter use; 
usually these will have begun to grow by March 
and are useless for cooking, but if pulled apart 
and each shoot planted out in good garden soil 
they will start at once into growth and in a few 

99 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

weeks' time produce a delicious green onion, 
sweet and of the utmost tenderness. I have found 
it a good thing to spade the flower beds intended 
for the growing of annuals and bedding plants 
early in the season and plant the onions in these, 
thus saving room in the garden and getting a 
greater use of the flower beds. 

Unlike many vegetables the onion can be grown 
year after year on the same ground, providing 
it is well fertilized each year with barnyard 
manure, so that the humus content of the soil is 
not depleted. Clean tilth is essential, so that as 
little hand work as possible may be required for 
-onions tops are exceedingly tender and injury 
to them checks the growth of the bulbs. The 
garden overalls adopted by many women for 
working is a distinct advantage in the onion bed. 
,For onion sets sow seed in drills early in spring; 
gather the sets when ripe and store in a dry place 
till spring; slight freezing will not injure them 
but they must be protected from thawing and 
freezing. 

But for winter onions of notable size and qual- 
100 



Early Spring Vegetables 

ity the New Onion Culture should be adopted : — 
This consists in sowing the seed in the hotbed 
in early spring and transplanting to the open 
ground when the weather is suitable. Set the 
tiny plants an inch apart in the rows, thin when 
big enough to use as green onions, removing every 
other one leaving them standing two inches apart, 
thin again to stand four inches apart and grow on 
until fall. If seed of Prizetaker or Ailsa Craig 
are used onions quite the equal of the fancy 
Spanish onions sold in the fruit stores will be 
produced. The soil must be more than ordinarily 
rich ; besides the spring dressing given the garden 
before ploughing the space selected for the onions 
should have well-rotted manure trenched in at 
the rate of a wheelbarrow load to every square 
yard: in trenching lay back a spade's depth of 
soil across the end of the onion bed ; fill this space 
with manure, trench a second row, throwing the 
soil on top of the manure, fill the fresh trench 
with manure and continue till the whole bed has 
been worked over. Rake the bed until the sur- 
face is perfectly fine and smooth and sow the. 

101 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

seeds in drills fifteen inches apart or set the plants 
as directed. 

Onions are occasionally attacked by root lice 
which if not at once exterminated will quickly 
destroy the plants; the lice work on the roots of 
the onion and the first evidence of their presence 
is a sickly yellowing of the tops; if an onion is 
pulled up and examined the presence of the tiny 
white lice will at once be evident: the remedy 
is salt and the method of applying is to open a 
shallow trench beside the rows and scatter salt 
quite plentifully along it, filling in the earth 
again; one application will exterminate the lice. 
Attacks of root lice are by no means common, 
but the fact that they do occur and are very 
deadly should make one watchful for the first 
sign of discoloration in the tops. 

When the onion tops show signs of ripening 
they should be broken down; this is sometimes 
done by rolling a barrel over them. A light 
home-made roller may be easily constructed by 
taking a length of nine inch stove pipe, fitting a 

102 



Early Spring Vegetables 

piece of wood in each end with a hole through the 
center to admit a bar of wood or iron which 
should be attached at the ends to a handle ad- 
justed so as to allow the cyKnder to roll; this 
being light can be rolled over the bed, leveling 
two or more rows at a time according to the 
length of the cyhnder; it can be quickly con- 
structed of waste material about the place and 
any piece of wood of suitable length — a couple of 
lathes, even, will answer, will do for handles. It is 
a good idea when it is found necessary to employ 
help in cultivating the garden to have a few little 
jobs like this on hand in case rain interferes with 
the work ; in this way neither the time of the help 
nor the money of the employer is wasted and I 
have found that it gives far better satisfaction to 
the help if there is something of the kind for him 
to do so that he need not lose his day's or fore- 
noon's work. Sharpening tools is another job 
that it pays to remember in the odd moments. A 
memorandum of things that can be done when it 
rains, tacked up in a conspicuous place in the 

103 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

work room, toolhouse or bam is a very useful re- 
minder and avoids an awkward delay while one 
tries to think of something to do. 

If possible onions should be dug on a warm, 
bright day and allowed to lie on the ground until 
dry and clean; they should then be stored in a 
dry, airy loft or on a scaffolding. On the hay 
in a barn is a good place for onions and they can 
be left there until freezing weather, for the shorter 
time they are in a warm house the better they 
will keep. If the temperature drops suddenly 
a little hay can be thrown over them. Slight 
freezing does not injure onions, but repeated 
freezing and thawing does. An upstairs room 
is better for storing than a cellar unless the latter 
is unusually dry and not too warm. Onions will, 
usually, keep in perfect condition until the middle 
of February or the first of JMarch, when they 
will begin to grow and should be sorted out, and 
the sound ones given a cool, dry place and sold 
or used as quickly as possible and the remainder 
saved for planting in the open ground. 



104. 



Early Spring Vegetables 

PARSLEY 

So universally used for garnishing and for 
flavoring soups and salads is of very slow germi- 
nation and for that reason is more successfully 
grown when started in hotbeds and transplanted 
into the open ground in May. The ancients held 
that parsley should never be sown as they claimed 
that the seed had to make a journey to Hades 
and remain six weeks; when sown in the open 
ground it seems to bear out that theory, so slow 
is its appearance above ground. In the hotbed 
it requires about three weeks. England, too, has 
its superstition of the parsley, beheving like the 
ancients, that it should be planted, not sown, 
that it must make the long j om-ney to the infernal 
regions and return and that there the devil takes 
his tithe of it, for proof of which they point to 
the fact that a small part only of the seed comes 
up. A better explanation would be found, I 
think, in the quality of the seed, the home grown 
seed coming up quite as well as other seed, the 
boughten seed sometimes proving unsatisfactory. 

105 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

The Greeks held the plant in great respect. 
A crown made of dried and withered leaves was 
given to the victors in their games. A crown 
together with a bunch of laurel was dedicated 
to the god of banquets while all the guests at 
these feasts wore crowns of parsley under the 
impression that the herb created quiet and pro- 
moted appetite. The Romans also decked them- 
selves in like manner upon similar occasions be- 
cause they believed that the plant had the power 
to absorb the fumes of wine and thus prevent 
drunkenness. 

It was parsley that Hercules selected for the 
making of his first garland of victory. Greek 
gardens were bordered with parsley and rue, 
giving rise to the saying, "Oh, we are only at 
the parsley and rue." As these ancients used 
the plant in their rejoicing and merrymaking, so, 
too, it was brought into use in their funeral dec- 
orations. Sprigs of the herb were strewn over 
their dead. According to old folk lore parsley 
should be sown on Good Friday. 

Parsley is a biennial plant, making a fine clump 
106 



Early Spring Vegetables 

of edible leaves the first year which in mild win- 
ters or protected positions survives the winter 
and starts into growth the following spring. It 
soon, however, runs to seed and is of no further 
value except to produce seed. If, however, one 
wants a small supply of parsley without the an- 
nual trouble of sov\^ing and transplanting a small 
bed of it may be allowed to go to seed and self- 
sow, when it becomes, practically, a perennial 
but does not attain the fine quality that the 
specially grown plant does. .A single row 
through the garden will furnish parsley for an 
entire neighborhood as the older leaves are gath- 
ered as needed and the crown allowed to produce 
new leaves; this should be done whether the 
leaves are needed or not as the quality of the new 
growth will be finer in every way, for leaving the 
old leaves to mature checks the growth of the 
crown leaves. Nine inches at least should be 
allowed between the plants and twelve is better, 
though when the tiny plants are first transplanted 
it may seem a long and lonely distance between 
them, but the plants soon fill up the space. 

107 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

Very little cultivation is needed between the 
plants when once they attain full size; the plants 
are so dense and spreading that they effectually 
choke out the younger weed growth, but the space 
between rows should be kept clean. 

Of the varieties to plant, only the fine moss 
curled should be selected. The Champion Moss 
Curled is a standard sort and one of the best, rich 
green in color and so crumpled and curled as to 
have the appearance of moss. Nearly all florists 
or seedsmen have their own especial brand of 
seed and one can select those which promise the 
best product. If desired bunches of the parsley 
may be lifted in the fall and potted or planted 
in window-boxes for winter use. They make 
a most attractive plant for the window and a 
pot of parsley, one of well-blanched endive and 
one of red celestial peppers make a most cheerful 
window decoration for the kitchen or dining-room, 
as well as furnishing crisp decorative material 
for the table. 



108 



Early Spring Vegetables 

PARSNIPS 

May be classed among the early spring veg- 
etables as they are planted as early as the ground 
can be worked in spring and are likewise ready 
for use as soon as the frost is out of the ground 
so that they may be dug; like all root vegetables 
they require rich, deeply dug or ploughed land. 
Not less than twelve inches in depth is required 
for successful cultivation; with shallow cultiva- 
tion crooked and many branched roots are pro- 
duced which are unsalable and of little value for 
home consumption. The long, smooth, beauti- 
fully white roots — two inches or more at the 
crown, are only produced in well-prepared soil. 

Parsnips are planted directly in the open 
ground as soon as the ground can be worked in 
spring, sowing the seed in drills an inch and a 
quarter deep, covering and tramping down the 
rows if the weather is dry. They should be 
thinned to stand from four to six inches apart in 
the row that the roots may make perfect devel- 
opment. The rows should be eighteen inches 

109 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

apart and the ground kept loose and clean 
throughout the growing season. 

The usual practice is to let the parsnips re- 
main in the ground over winter, taking up and 
storing in boxes of slightly moist earth or sand, 
in the cellar, a supply for winter use. The pars- 
nip is improved in quality by a touch of frost 
but must be dug before growth starts in the 
spring. 

Parsnips are eaten quite readily by Belgian 
hares and imperfect or small roots may be sorted 
out and fed to them, avoiding any loss in grading. 

PEAS 

Of the very earliest kinds, and that is distinctly 
the smooth peas, should be gotten into the ground 
very early in spring. IMost of the early sorts 
will stand considerable cold, but the wrinkled 
sorts are tender and should not be planted until 
the weather and soil are warm and reasonably dry. 
More failures in growing peas come from plant- 
ing in cold, wet soil, in a mistaken hurry to get 
early peas than from any other cause. 

110 



Early Spring Vegetables 

Ground for peas should be very rich; it is not 
sufficient that the garden plot has been well 
(manured before ploughing; — the strip allotted 
to the growing of peas should have additional 
fertilizer trenched in, especially is this necessary 
in growing the wrinkled sorts and especially the 
dwarf peas, such as Nott's Excelsior and the 
like. These dwarf peas cannot bear a big crop 
on their abbreviated tops unless forced to pro- 
duction by heavy feeding, but as the wi'inkled, 
medium early and mid-season peas are the most 
delicious of all in quality, the extra care required 
is well repaid. Another object in heavy fer- 
tilizing is that by this means a succession of peas 
may be grown on the same ground. Personally 
I prefer peas that require support to the very 
,dwarf sorts ; in the first place you have more vine 
for the production of pods. You cannot, with 
the best intentions, get as big a crop from one 
foot of vine as you can from three, all things 
being equal. Again, the labor of gathering pods 
from upright growing vines where the pods are 
easily seen and reached is far less than from the 

111 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

prostrate vines which must be lifted or looked 
under in search of pods. Wire netting furnishes 
a better support than brush and where the gar- 
dener is a woman is much pleasanter to work 
about. Brush has an unpleasant habit of catch- 
ing on the clothing and twisting around, often 
to the injury of the vine, but the netting gives a 
firm support, to which the vine readily attaches 
itself. 

In the home garden the best way to plant 
peas is in double rows a foot apart, making the 
trench about three inches deep and dropping the 
peas as evenly as possible. Early sown peas 
do not require 'as deep planting as the wrinkled 
sorts which may be planted four or five inches 
deep to avoid blight. As the wrinkled sorts are 
very tender they should not go into the ground 
before corn planting time and not then unless 
the nights and soil are warm. 

An excellent arrangement for a succession of 
peas in the home garden is to prepare the rows 
by trenching in manure and then make two fur- 
rows a foot apart and in one furrow plant the 

112 



Early Spring Vegetables 

earliest peas and in the other -a second early pea, 
stretching a four or five foot width of wire net- 
ting between the rows; this extends the bearing 
season a couple of weeks. When all the pods 
have formed on the earliest varieties of vines a 
second furrow may be opened beside it and a 
wrinkled sort of medium earliness be planted; 
these will be ready to climb about the time the 
first vines are turning yellow when they may be 
pulled up, leaving their place for the new vines. 
This system of succession of planting may be 
repeated on the other side of the netting, thus 
giving four sowings of peas to one strip of net- 
ting and a succession of peas for several weeks. 

The germination of the seed may be hastened 
by soaking the seed over night in warm water 
and when sowing unsoaked seed, in dry weather, 
germination is hastened by pouring hot water into 
the trench before covering the seed. 

The experienced gardener will have his pet 
variety of peas but the amateur will be somewhat 
afield in selection so I would suggest as a desir- 
able early sort the Gradus or Prosperity Pea, a 

113 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

delicious sort of the tall kind that has much to 
recommend it. American Wonder is another 
extra early pea of a wrinkled sort that appeals to 
those who prefer a dwarf pea, being but a foot 
in height and compares in general excellence with 
Nott's Excelsior. On the same trellis with 
Gradus may be planted the Senator Pea; this 
is a number one pea in every respect — quality, 
quantity and appearance; following these one 
may plant more Senators and the Telephone; 
these will give a succession of peas for several 
weeks. 

So many enemies conspire against the pea 
that close watch must be kept from the planting 
of the seed until the plants are well above the 
ground. Usually the chief depredation comes 
from moles which run along underneath the seed 
and destroy it; poisoned bait placed in the 
trench along with the seed often destroys the 
moles before much damage is done. A mole trap 
set at each end of the row or at the point where 
the mole enters the run will often prove effective. 

114j 



Early Spring Vegetables 

A very successful home made trap consists of a 
large can or crock — a lard can is good, sunk in 
the ground and a trap consisting of a long, end- 
less box with about a third of the bottom sawed 
apart and pivoted on nails driven through the 
side, so that anything entering at one end will 
drop through the swinging trap into the can be- 
neath, which should be kept full of water; this 
arrangement will catch more moles than any steel 
trap with which I am familiar, and as the pres- 
ence of the moles in the garden threatens other 
vegetables as well as the peas it will be time well 
spent to prepare one or more of these traps for 
use when occasion arises; the making of these 
traps may well be put on the list of rainy day 
tasks. 

Cutworms sometimes take the peas as fast 
as they appear above the ground; poisoned bait 
along the rows before the peas break the ground 
will dispose of this enemy. Blackbirds often 
destroy a planting of peas before their presence 
is suspected and English sparrows have been 

115 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

known to do much damage, so if one would en- 
joy fresh, home grown peas one must exercise 
due vigilance. 

The use of Mulford and other cultures for 
inoculating peas is growing in practice among 
the most progressive gardeners and is a very 
wise precaution to take; especially is it desir- 
able in intensive culture suggested by growing 
two crops of peas on the same strip of land. 
Peas, like all legumes, are nitrogen feeders and 
gatherers and the use of the culture supplies the 
young plant, at the start, with nitrogen and puts 
it in shape to begin the accumulation of nitrogen 
from the air by its own efforts. The nitrogen 
gathered from the air is stored up on the roots 
in the form of nodules or bunches, and it is for 
this reason that the growing of all legumes is so 
beneficial to the soil. If when the first planting 
of peas is matured and gathered the vines are cut 
or broken off close to the ground, instead of being 
pulled up, root and all, this suppty of nitrogen 
will remain in the soil and be available for the 
succeeding crop. 

116 



Early Spring Vegetables 

The inoculating of the seed is very simple: 
the small bottles, which, by the way, cost but 
twenty-five cents for garden size, are only one- 
fourth full; simply fill up the bottle with water 
and moisten the seed before planting; this is all, 
and the same bottle will supply inoculating ma- 
terial for the beans which also being legumes re- 
spond favorably to the treatment. 

EADISHES 

A few radishes may be grown in the hotbed 
for very early use, but the main planting should 
be in the open ground. It is hardly worth while 
to devote any definite part of the garden to rad- 
ishes as room can be found for them among the 
other vegetables. An excellent way to grow 
them is to drop seeds at intervals along the rows 
of beets, carrots, parsnips and salsify. All these 
seeds are slow in germinating and by dropping 
in occasional radish seeds which germinate in 
from three to five days the rows will be marked 
so that they may be kept cultivated without wait- 
ing for the plants to appear and indicate the rows. 

117 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

A surprising amount of radishes will be grown 
in this way, without any special labor and loss 
of ground ; and they will be out of the way before 
the ground is needed for the permanent occupant 
of the row. 

The turnip rooted sorts are the most quickly 
and easily grown, the Twenty Day as its name 
indicates being ready for use in twenty days and 
the French Breakfast and Improved Breakfast 
Radish being ready in twenty-five; both of these 
are very tender, crisp and mild sorts and beauti- 
ful in appearance, white at the base and scarlet 
above, making a beautiful appearance v/hen pre- 
pared for the breakfast table with a bit of the 
green top for contrast. For those who prefer a 
white radish the Icicle Radish is a fine sort, crisp 
and tender and does not grow coarse or pithy 
until quite large. 

If one wishes to devote a definite space to rad- 
ishes and maintain a succession of plants it will 
be a good plan to drop a seed in the ground for 
each radish pulled; in this way there will be a con- 
stant supply of young, crisp radishes all summer. 

118 



Early Spring Vegetables 

Where only a few are desired it is a good plan 
to plant a short space of the rows devoted to other 
vegetables to radishes and lettuce and perhaps 
a few plants of endive and parsley next to the 
path and near the house so that they may be 
easily got at without walking on the newly cul- 
tivated ground. 

SALSIFY 

Is another plant that is started very early in 
the spring and eaten as soon as the frost is out 
of the ground. It is one of the most useful and 
delicious of this class of plants and is not nearly 
as much cultivated as it should be. Sliced and 
cooked tender it makes, when combined with 
milk, seasoning and cracker crumbs, a most ac- 
ceptable substitute for oyster soup or, cooked, 
mashed and mixed with a little flour and season- 
ing and butter, dipped in egg and bread crumbs, 
it makes delicious little cakes when fried. Its 
culture is simple, any good, light fertile soil pro- 
ducing a good crop, but to produce clean, smooth 
roots it should be deeply dug and well cultivated. 

119 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

Sow the seed in shallow drills early in the season; 
thin to stand six inches apart in the row. It is 
hardy and may remain in the ground all winter, 
but a supply for winter use should be dug at the 
approach of cold weather and stored in boxes of 
sand or earth in the root cellar. As soon as the 
frost is out of the ground in spring and before 
growth starts they must be dug. If it is desired 
to grow seed the plants should be set out again, or 
may be left where they are if the ground is not 
needed for other vegetables, and cultivated the 
same as seedling plants. 

SPINACH 

The most important of the vegetables grown 
for greens, should be sown in the open ground 
as early as the ground can be worked if wanted 
for early spring and summer use. For fall and 
winter use sow in September. For a succession 
sow every two weeks. Sow in drills one foot 
apart and one inch deep, in soil as fertile as one 
can compass ; the soil cannot be too rich for spin- 
ach, as upon the rapidity of its growth depends 

120 



Early Spring Vegetables 

the tenderness and succulence of its leaves; in 
poor soil, especially if allowed to suffer for water, 
the leaves will be tough and ill-flavored. Light 
applications of nitrate of soda have a magic effect 
on spinach and should be applied hghtly every 
two weeks. 

The Round Seeded Savoy is a standard sort, 
with thick, fleshy leaves, curled and crinkled ; the 
New Zealand is a good sort for summer as it with- 
stands heat well and is slow to run to seed. In 
gathering the spinach the entire, top may be cut 
off a bit above the crown; this induces a new, 
quick, tender growth of leaves. 

In planting for spring and winter use the beds 
should be covered with straw at the approach of 
cold weather. Spinach often self-sows and gives 
a volunteer crop the following spring. When 
the spinach begins to send up seed stalks it may 
be cut and fed to the rabbits and so waste that 
would otherwise ensue may be avoided. 



121 



CHAPTER IX 

MID-SEASON VEGETABLES 

BEANS 

BEING somewhat tender, should not be 
planted until the ground is warm in spring. 
Corn-planting time will do for the iield and 
navy bean, but the white podded string bean and 
the lima bean should not go into the ground 
until all danger of frost is past and the gi-ound 
is in growing condition. At the present ad- 
vanced cost of seed — fifty-five cents a pound for 
the string and lima sorts with postage added by 
some dealers, it will not do to take any chances 
by being in too much of a hurry to get seed into 
the ground ; neither will it pay to buy seed of any 
but reliable dealers. There has never been a 
time when so much importance attaches to choos- 
ing one's seed merchant wisely. Cheap seed 
never pays, for the time lost in replanting seed 

122 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

of poor germination, or, worse still, that comes 
imtrue to name, giving one inferior or mongrel 
vegetables, offsets, many times, the amount saved 
in money. 

String beans are the first form in which this 
favorite vegetable appears on the table and a 
very delicious and attractive dish they make when 
such white wax or golden wax as Wardwell's 
Kidney, Davis's Kidney Wax, Improved Golden 
Wax are selected; well grown plants of these 
varieties, well laden with their . long, wax-hke 
pods are a joy to the gardener; and if the pods 
are gathered as fast as they mature, and this may 
be done as soon as they whiten, up to the time they 
are fully grown, when they will still be sweet and 
tender, the bushes will continue to bear heavily 
until cut down by the frost ; this should always be 
done whether the beans are wanted for use or not ; 
they can be canned, sold, or given away or fed to 
the pig — anything rather than to check the vines' 
bearing. If one wishes to save seed for the next 
year's planting, and this is worth while when 
such high prices prevail, it will be well to set aside 

123 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

a row, or portion of a row, for seed, allowing the 
first pods to ripen as this establishes the early 
bearing characteristic of the plant. 

In planting beans good soil should be chosen, 
but beans do not need rich soil as many other 
garden vegetables do. It is said that beans will 
grow on soil that will not grow anything else; 
this is rather an extreme statement, but it is 
a fact that they will thrive where more exacting 
plants will languish ; this is accounted for by the 
fact that the bean is a legume and so empowered 
to draw an important part of its nourishment 
from the air in the form of nitrates, which it stores 
in little pockets or nodules on its roots and so 
has a larder of its own to draw on. 

Open a drill a couple of inches deep and drop 
the beans at regular intervals two or three inches 
apart, or they may be planted three or four in 
hills, six inches apart ; cover and tramp down the 
rows and draw the rake lightly over them. Ex- 
cept for the distance at which they are planted, 
all beans require practically the same treatment ; 
they should never be cultivated when wet or gath- 

124 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

ered or handled in any way ; the rule should be to- 
give them a wide berth in wet weather; working 
among them when wet is the cause of the dis- 
figuring rust that makes them unsalable and in 
bad cases uneatable. Wardwell's and Davis's 
Kidney Wax are as free from rust as any of the 
white podded varieties and are the best selections 
the amateur gardener can make. 

For those who like a green podded bean the 
Stringless Green Pod is a fine variety and 
very popular with gardeners. Giant Stringless, 
Green Pod and Longfellow make up a trio of 
beans hard to beat. 

Boston pea bean or navy bean is the best 
selection for baked beans ; these should be allowed 
to ripen their pods until quite dry. The usual 
method of harvesting is to wait until all the beans 
are ripe in late summer and harvest by pulling 
the vines and piling in heaps until dry; this is 
not an economical way, however, nor specially 
adapted to the small home garden; a better way 
is to gather the pods as fast as they ripen, storing 
them in a dry, airy place until ready to shell 

125 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

easily; if this is done many more beans will be 
produced and there will be no loss from the 
earlier beans shelling out on the ground as they 
will when the vines are left for the entire crop 
to ripen. Usually it will be necessary to go over 
the vines about four times but the result will be 
a much greater quantity of beans and all in the 
finest possible condition; when left until all are 
ripe it will be found that there is a considerable 
amount of mouldy or injured beans. 

Lima beans require somewhat different treat- 
ment from the string or navy bean; to begin 
with they require a much richer soil and the 
ground should be well manured and a supple- 
mentary dressing of hen manure, rabbit drop- 
pings or ashes about the plants when well estab- 
lished will be of much benefit ; they require more 
room in the row than the string beans, not less 
than eight or nine inches with the rows two feet 
apart; the beans should be planted about two 
inches deep, setting the seed with the eyes down- 
ward and covering and tramping the rows. 
■Rather late planting is advisable for limas than 

126 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

for string beans and for very early beans a few 
may be started in the hotbed and transplanted 
in the open ground about the twentieth of May 
at the north — add or subtract a week for each hun- 
dred miles north or south. The bean, having no 
tap root and a broad spread of lateral roots, is 
one of the easiest plants to transplant and hy 
starting a hundred plants in the hotbed a much 
earlier crop will be obtained; that will be filling 
up the time while the open air planting is coming 
forward. 

Another very important advantage in starting 
seed in the hotbed is the larger per cent, of plants 
obtained; if good seed is used every one may be 
depended upon to grow. The hotbed also af- 
fords protection from the enemies that destroy 
the lima, one of the most destructive being hens, 
and it will be wise to assure Biddy's absence from 
the garden until the beans are showing their first 
leaves as the succulent looking white seeds that 
first break through the ground have an irre- 
sistible attraction for her and she will walk along 
the rows, nipping off every pod as it appears; 

127 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

this seems to be due to curiosity as she does not 
eat, but drops them on the ground; I have seen 
whole plantings of lima beans destroyed in this 
way. English sparrows also are known to de- 
stroy the tops. String beans do not offer the 
temptation that the limas do so are seldom mo- 
lested. 

For the home garden the bush limas are to be 
preferred as they take less room and are easier 
to handle. The Improved Fordhook Bush Lima 
is one of the best varieties if not the best. The 
ISTew Wonder Bush Lima is highly recommended. 
Beans may be planted every two weeks for suc- 
cession up to August. Dry limas that remain on 
the vines in fall may be used for cooking in win- 
ter. Limas are not injured by light frosts as 
much as the other varieties of beans; the pods 
cuddling under the thick foliage are protected 
and one can frequently gather a mess after the 
frost has cut everything else in the garden; the 
thick pods, too. are a protection to the beans in- 
side. 

If it is desired to gi'ow pole Hmas set the poles 
128 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

four feet apart each way and plant five or six 
beans to each hill and thin to three when the 
plants are up; when the plants have reached the 
top of the pole pinch out the top ; add a spadeful 
of well-rotted manure to each hill before planting, 
mixing it thoroughly with the soil. Carpenteria is 
about the best of the pole limas and Early Levia- 
than Lima is another good sort. Wire netting 
may be used in place of poles and will be found 
more convenient and economical. Treating the 
beans with f armogerm, Mulf ord .or other culture 
is advisable. 

CABBAGE 

For early cabbage sow seed in the hotbed or 
in flats in the house and transplant to the open 
ground in May. Cabbage are not injured by 
light frosts and can go into the ground earlier 
than most other garden stuff; usually the early 
sorts are selected for first planting but the late 
and winter sorts will, if started in heat, do about 
as well as the early; it is largely a matter of 
handling. The Late Flat Dutch is an excellent 

129 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

sort for the first planting as it is a very sure 
header, giving large, flat heads of the best qual- 
ity. In twelve years' experience in growing this 
variety I have never found a diseased plant nor, 
except in a year of very exceptional weather, a 
soft head. They keep well over winter and are 
altogether a very satisfactory all round cabbage. 
In transplanting the plants from the hotbed to 
the open ground all but the upper pair of leaves 
should be removed and these may have the upper 
half clipjied ; this gives the roots a chance to estab- 
lish themselves before they are called upon to 
support top growth. Set the plants about two 
feet apart each way, or the rows two feet apart 
and the plants twenty inches; the nearer dis- 
tance is tenable if one raises rabbits as the lower 
leaves may be removed and fed to them, thus 
giving the plants more room; they should close 
up the gaps between them when fully grown as 
this shades the ground and conserves moisture — 
an important feature in a dry season. The 
ground should be kept well cultivated and free 
from weeds as long as work can be carried on 

130 



Mid-Season V egetables 

among them and when the cultivator can no 
longer be used the scuffle-hoe can be introduced 
under and between them without injury to the 
leaves. In hoeing or cultivating draw the earth 
up towards the plants. 

When the heads are filled out and hard and 
it is not desired to gather them they may be kept 
from splitting by pulling the roots loose on one 
side and bending them over. 

The principal enemy of the cabbage is the 
white butterfly and its offspringT— the green cat- 
erpillar. There are many ways of combating this 
pest ; the most effectual way, early in the season 
is dusting with Paris green mixed with flour. 
A convenient way to apply is to take a quart 
Mason jar, take the lid, remove the porcelain 
lining and punch the top full of holes, fill the 
can with flour mixed with one teaspoon of fresh 
Paris green and sift over the plants while wet 
with dew at the first appearance of the pest; 
this should not be used after the heads have 
formed ; after this sprinkling with salt and work- 
ing it in between the loose leaves of the head is 

131 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

often effectual. Dusting with dry earth some- 
times has a deterrent effect on the worms. 

The grey aphis is another most troublesome 
pest; this comes so insidiously that the plants 
are well infested before their presence is sus- 
pected. Spraying with kerosene emulsion is 
sometimes effectual if the heads are not too far 
advanced. Spraying with zenoleum — a table- 
spoonful to two quarts of water — will kill every 
louse it touches and by its odor discourage any in- 
tending arrivals, but this should not be used where 
the heads are at all advanced, though a hard rain 
would rid the plants of the odor of both zenoleum 
and kerosene. Soapsuds, especially whale oil 
and nicotine, are suggested and hand picking of 
worms is not without its value. Spraying with 
hot water 140° is effectual and safe and cleanses 
and stimulates the plants. 

Cut worms are very destructive to cabbage 
when first set out; their depredations may be 
guarded against by enclosing the stem of the 
plant in a band of stiff paper when planting; this 

132 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

should go into the ground an inch and extend up 
the stem two or three inches. Strewing poisoned 
bait along the intended rows for a night or two is 
suggested but this is a dangerous practice where 
there is poultry at hberty ; baiting after the plants 
are set is often successful, too, but the best safe- 
guard is to have a good supply of surplus plants 
in the hotbed. The rows should be looked over 
the first thing in the morning after planting to 
discover what plants have been cut and wherever 
a plant is missing the worm should be looked for, 
and when found killed; this is really the most 
satisfactory way of eradicating the pest. The 
worm never goes more than two or three inches 
from the plant and will be found somewhere just 
below the surface of the ground, usualty under 
some bit of roughage that makes a little hollow. 
If there is a piece of sod or clover-land near the 
garden the cut worms will usually begin their 
work from that side and if a planting of cabbage 
is made a few days in advance of other plants 
this will serve as a trap for the worms and 

133 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

hunting and killing them for a few days will 
make the planting safe for the tomatoes, egg- 
plants, and peppers. 

A little nitrate of soda sprinkled around the 
plants is a great incentive to growth. 

For winter cabbage sow seed in the open 
ground in May and transplant into permanent 
rows as soon as large enough, giving the plants 
more room than early cabbage. Late Flat 
Dutch, Wakefield, Danish Roundhead and Dutch 
Winter or Hollander are all good sorts which 
will prove good keepers and sellers. 

If in setting out plants of winter cabbage it 
is found that there are more plants than are 
needed, they may be allowed to remain where 
they are and given a little protection, such as 
boards, cornstalks or evergreens, and can be used 
for setting out the following spring. 

CAULIFLOWER 

Require the same general treatment as cabbage. 
They are set somewhat closer in the rows and cul- 
tivated the same as cabbage ; however, for the best 

134? 



Mid-Season V egetables 

results it is desirable to transplant the cauliflower 
from the hotbed into cold frames as soon as they 
have their second pair of leaves, setting three 
inches apart each way and as soon as they resume 
growth giving a light application of nitrate of 
soda, then transplant when the weather is favor- 
able. Cauliflower are quite hardy and not in- 
jured by early fall frosts, making steady growth 
until severe cold weather and many heads that 
have failed to fill during the fall will fill out finely 
in November. 

As soon as the curd, or head, forms and has 
made a little size the leaves must be drawn over 
it and tied to exclude rain and light; this 
must be done when the plants are perfectly dry 
and the weather clear, a sunny day about noon 
is the best time for the work. If tied up when 
wet or damp the heads will rot. If not tied up 
growth will start in the heads, they will turn 
purple and green and be unfit for food. It is 
upon the successful tying up of the cauliflower 
that its successful culture depends; like the cab- 
bage it requires a rich, well fertilized soil and 

135 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

applications of nitrate of soda once a week during 
the growing season will hasten the development 
of the head; wood ashes, too, are beneficial. 

The insect enemies of the cauliflower are those 
of the cabbage, but they molest it in a somewhat 
lesser degree. The remedies to be employed are 
the same. 

There are two important varieties of cauli- 
flower — The Snowball and the Dry Weather. 
The former is a poor cropper in dry seasons un- 
less artificial irrigation can be supplied. The 
Dry Weather Cauliflower, on the other hand, 
seems to be at its best in a dry season and will 
give fine heads when the other fails. As one 
can not forecast what the rainfall of any given 
season will be it is well to be provided against 
any contingency by planting both varieties of 
cauliflower; by this forethought one will be as- 
sured of a crop whatever the weather and the 
snowballs that failed to head during August and 
September may come on in October and Novem- 
ber and give a late crop for pickling. 

In the majority of gardens cauliflowers are 
136 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

grown exclusively for pickling; this is a mistake 
for there is no vegetable more delicate and tooth- 
some than this; it outclasses cabbage and when 
fried in batter or breaded with egg and cracker 
crumbs, it affords a most excellent substitute for 
meat, indeed, it is really more acceptable when 
no meat dish accompanies it ; for this reason — its 
desirability as a table vegetable — special pains 
should be taken to produce early heads, by start- 
ing in hotbeds, transplanting into cold frames, 
fertilizing with nitrate and giving special atten- 
tion to thorough cultivation throughout its grow- 
ing period. If water can be supplied, a thor- 
ough drenching of the roots once or twice a week, 
followed by a cultivation the following morning 
to restore the dust-mulch, will be of much benefit. 
The green cabbage worm is sometimes very 
troublesome on the heads and leaves of cauli- 
flowers and one should watch for the presence of 
the white cabbage butterfly as this will indicate 
whether one may expect an attack of caterpillars. 
If once the worms have become established spraj''- 
ing with hot water of from 130° to 140° will ex- 

137 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

terminate all with which it comes in contact, as 
worms are far more sensitive to hot water than 
are the plants which they infect. 

CORN 

Is one of the most profitable of the garden's 
offerings; there is, practically, no loss connected 
with it; a delicious vegetable for the table in its 
green state, fresh from the stalk ; it is equally wel- 
come when it appears sweet and toothsome from 
the can in winter or, conserved in a dried state, 
is soaked and cooked the same as fresh corn. 
There is no waste in the unused corn that remains 
ungathered on the stalks for it may be saved for 
seed another year or fed to the poultry, while 
the stalks, cut and cured, make excellent feed 
for cow, horse or rabbits. Cut while green and 
made into ensilage it is the best substitute for 
green feed in winter for any animal that eats 
green food. Much green feed for stock may be 
secured from the corn patch in summer by re- 
moving all the side shoots that do not bear ears 
and feeding them to the pigs or rabbits. This 

138 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

is of benefit to the corn as it allows all the 
strength of the plant to go into the ears instead 
of being wasted in growing useless foliage. 

Corn is a gross feeder and requires a deep, 
mellow, fertile soil, well enriched with barnyard 
manure. Clover sod well manured and ploughed 
will give the maximum amount of corn, but any 
good soil if fertilized will produce good corn. 

Corn is somewhat tender and should not be 
planted until the ground is warm, but in the small 
home garden where a small amount of seed is re- 
quired a little risk may be run by planting early 
in May and replanting if an early frost catches 
the crop. It is not, as a general thing, the 
spring frost that does the most damage, especially 
with field corn, it is the late frost that catches 
the corn still in the milk that does the damage, 
so that anything that pushes the crop along to 
maturity before danger of fall frost is of moment. 
This is one reason why heavy fertilizing is so 
important, — it speeds up the maturuig of the 
corn and gets it beyond the danger line in time. 

Sweet corn may be planted in drills or in hills, 
139 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

but I prefer the hill method. Even in a small 
patch that can be worked but one way with a 
horse or cultivator — there is always a hoe to take 
care of the space between the hills. 

The rows should be three feet apart and the 
corn in hills three feet apart, or if planted in rows 
make the rows four feet apart and the corn 
twelve inches apart. Drop several kernels in 
each hill and thin to three plants to a hill when 
the corn is up and danger of frost is passed. One 
pound of seed will plant a hundred hills or from 
one hundi'ed and fifty to two hundred feet of 
row. If hard frost threatens just as the corn 
is coming through the ground, throwing earth 
over it with a hoe will often afford sufficient pro- 
tection to save it. 

In a small garden patch it is not much work 
to stick a mark of some kind in the center of each 
hill and if this is done cultivation can commence 
at once and a hard crust be prevented from form- 
ing; this will hasten the germination of the seed 
and insure the elimination of weeds at the start. 

There are many varieties of sweet corn adver- 
140 



Mid-Season V egetables 

tised, each seedsman having his own favorite 
specialty, but there are really but two that one 
need take into consideration — ^the old, rehable 
Stowell's Evergreen and the new Bantam Ever- 
green — a cross between that exceptionally sweet 
corn, the Golden Bantam, and Stowell's Ever- 
green, and combining the great qualities of both 
parents, the delicious sweetness and tenderness 
and earliness of Bantam with the more generous 
size and more tender skin of the Evergreen. 
Plant these two varieties and have the best to be 
obtained in sweet corn. One planting of Ever- 
green will give big generous ears of late corn, 
while for succession the Bantam may be planted 
every two weeks up to July. 

When the corn is a couple of feet high it will 
be well to go through the patch and remove 
all suckers or barren stalks so as to conserve all 
the food and moisture for the production of ears. 

In addition to barnyard manure, wood ashes is 
an important fertilizer for corn, supplying the 
notash so essential to its growth ; this may be put 
in the hill at the time the corn is planted or may 

141 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

be scattered about the plants after they are up 
and hoed into the soil; it should not be applied 
in connection with manure as it has a tendency 
to release the ammonia content of the manure, but 
should be applied independently. Droppings 
from the poultry house may be used in the grow- 
ing of the corn crop, placing about a teacupful in 
a hill, but not in contact with the seed. Several 
barrels of dry droppings should be saved during 
the winter for just this extra fertihzing in the 
kitchen garden.^ 

1 Corn should not be planted in single rows for this reason : — 
when the corn blooms the pollen is carried from ear to ear, and 
from plant to plant. If a single row is planted broadside to the 
prevailing wind, the pollen is dissipated and the corn remains un- 
fertilized and produces no ears. Three or more rows insures 
against this loss of poUenization. If only a limited number of 
hills are to be planted it will be better to plant them in blocks 
rather than in one or two long rows. Corn that matures at dif- 
ferent seasons should not be planted in parallel single rows as 
the result would be the same as one single row — the corn not 
blooming at the same time. Again, corn of two different sorts 
should not be in adjoining, parallel rows, rather should each kind 
be planted in blocks to avoid hybridizing. Where it is necessary 
to give a long strip of land to the sweet corn it may be divided 
into blocks, especially if the strip extends from north to south, 
as the prevailing winds are quite uniformly from east or west 
and there is little trouble with cross pollenizing from south to 
north. 

142 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

Corn is very easily transplanted so that where 
there is a failure of the corn to germinate in some 
hills and an over supply in others, the extra plants 
may be lifted carefully with the spade or trowel 
and slipped into holes prepared for them where 
wanted. Last season I had an interesting ex- 
perience transplanting an entire row of corn, 
over a foot high. A row of okra had been 
planted across the garden but failed to ap- 
pear on schedule time and was finally given up 
and corn planted in its place; -the corn came 
up and had made several inches of top when 
to my surprise the okra appeared. It was evi- 
dent that the two robust plants could not occupy 
successfully the same ground and I did not wish 
to sacrifice either, so an equal number of hills 
were prepared in another part of the garden, fer- 
tilized with poultry droppings and ashes and 
the hills of corn, then over a foot high, lifted, 
one hill at a time, on a spade and carried and 
slipped into their holes, and not a plant seemed 
aware that anything had happened to it; cer- 
tainly there was no check to the growth, but, by 

143 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

lifting on the spade with plenty of soil adhering, 
the roots were not disturbed in the least. 

Corn has so few enemies that it is scarcely 
worth while to consider them, the principal one 
being earworm — a small worm that eats out the 
tip of the ear; they can be poisoned by dropping 
Paris green in the axils of the leaves when the 
plants are young. 

CUCUMBERS 

For slicing for the table should be planted as 
soon as the ground is warm or a few seed may be 
planted on pieces of inverted sod, or in pots or 
paper bands in the hotbed and transplanted into 
the open ground about corn-planting time or 
when the danger of frost is past; this will give 
several weeks' start on outdoor planting and will 
also make the plants practically immune from 
attacks of the striped beetle. Settles will of 
course appear, but by the time of their arrival the 
plants will have attained sufficient size to with- 
stand their attacks, particularly will this be the 
case if protected with dry earth, sifted over the 

144 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

leaves to roughen them or the appHcation of to- 
bacco tea or tobacco stems or leaves about the 
plants. 

Pieces of sod, about four inches square, should 
be cut and placed earth-side up close together 
in the warmest part of the hotbed and sev- 
eral seeds planted on each piece and the whole 
covered with a fourth of an inch of earth. When 
ready to transplant lift the pieces on to a fiat 
board or carrier and slip into a hole prepared for 
them with as little disturbance ^as possible and 
press the soil firmly about them so that the air 
will not get underneath and dry the roots. 

There is not too much room for vine vegetables 
of any sort in the small kitchen garden and if de- 
sired the early cucumbers for table use may be 
grown on netting. The Japanese cucumber is 
a cHmbing sort especially addicted to this manner 
of gi'owth, bears fine, large fruit of most excellent 
quality and the position on the wire, away from 
the soil and damp ground, produces a most at- 
tractive fruit, free from the yellow blanching 
that is present on the cucumbers grown on the 

145 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

ground. Last year among a number of these 
Japanese plants there occurred one or two plants 
of a snow white cucumber that I found very 
superior in crispness and flavor to the green 
fruit. Owing to early frost I was not able to 
secure seed of this interloper. Mr. Burbank's 
cucumber seed did not produce a single white 
seed. This is not, however, a climbing sort, but 
all vines which have tendrils can be grown on net- 
ting. Squash even will grow, bear and seem to 
enjoy the experience. 

Cucumbers when grown for the table should be 
gathered as soon as of slicing size, whether wanted 
or not, as allowing the fruit to ripen on the vine 
stops production; this is especially imperative in 
the case of pickles which must be removed as soon 
as of sufficient size to use. The small pickles of 
an inch and a quarter or less should be gathered 
first and larger pickles left until the latter part 
of the season as gathering the cucumbers while 
very small increases the vine's productiveness 
and there will always be enough overlooked to 
supply the larger sort of pickles. 

146 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

Cucumbers for pickling should not be sown 
before June and may be planted at any time after 
that up to mid- July. Plant in hills from four to 
six feet apart spading in a spadeful of manure in 
each hill ; thin out to three or four plants in a hill 
when danger of bugs is past; spray with Bor- 
deaux Arsenate of Lead three ounces to a gallon 
of water, when in danger of beetles or blight ; the 
combination of lead and Bordeaux mixture covers 
both emergencies. 

Keep the ground well cultivated as long as the 
vines will allow; pinch off the ends of all the 
vines when about a foot long to induce branching ; 
when the plants begin to bloom notice the pres- 
ence or absence of bees. Some years the cur- 
cubita family fails signally in setting fruit and 
this is usually caused by lack of poUenization by 
the bees. On a small patch one may substitute 
cross-pollenization by carrying pollen from one 
blossom to another with a camel's hair brush or 
by shaking the blossoms against each other, but 
a preventative measure would be to raise a colony 
or two of bees. Sometimes the presence of some 

147 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

plant especially attractive to bees will lure them 
away from the melons, cucumbers and like plants. 
Two years ago the presence of a patch of vetch 
proved so attractive to the bees that it was not 
until late in the season that the flowers of a near- 
by patch of winter squash and citron received 
sufficient attention to set any fruit. The air was 
resonant with the hum of bees, but not one was 
to be seen on the vines. 

There are any number of good cucumbers 
to choose from for general crop. Early Fortune 
has proved a favorite in my garden. It is a good 
bearer and quality and appearance are all that 
could be asked. The Davis Perfect, Arlington 
White Spine, and Westerfield's Chicago Pickle 
are all satisfactory sorts to grow. 

EGG PLANTS 

Are very tender when small, so they should be 
started in the warmest part of the hotbed, or in 
a warm, sunny window in flats. When they 
have grown their first pair of true leaves they 
should be transplanted — if at all crowded, into 

148 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

other flats or other rows in the hotbed, setting 
them two inches apart each way and grown on, 
given sufficient water and occasional cultivation, 
but not sufficient to disturb the roots, until time 
to plant out in the open ground; this should not 
be done until the nights and soil are warm as a 
check at this time will mean a late setting of 
fruit. 

Egg plants are considered one of the difficult 
things to grow; personally I have seldom lost a 
plant except at the hands, or mouth rather, of cut- 
worms, but I have frequently gotten an unsatis- 
factory setting of fruit. However, one must 
have certain standards to adhere to in their cul- 
ture, the first of which is heat in all the early 
stages of their growth, the second, rich soil, with 
occasional supplementary di'essings of nitrate of 
soda, and thorough cultivation. 

The plants require considerable room when 
mature and should not be set closer than three feet 
each way. 

The principal enemy of the egg plant is the 
potato beetle which is quite as partial to egg 

149 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

plants as to potatoes. Spraying with Paris green 
or arsenate of lead is effectual before the fruit 
has formed but hand picking is more satisfactory 
and where only a few plants are grown for family 
use, quite as practical. It is not the mature 
beetle that eats the leaves but the young beetles 
that hatch from the mass of yellow eggs laid on 
the under side of the leaves, so at the first ap- 
pearance of the old bugs search should be made 
for the mass of eggs and these as well as the 
parent beetle destroyed ; by this means no beetles 
can get a start. It is always good practice to 
avoid, as far as possible, the use of poisonous in- 
secticides in the kitchen garden; while their use 
may do no harm on vegetables that have not set 
their fruit, there is always a tendency to grow 
careless in their use and to continue it after the 
safety zone has been passed. 

New York egg plant is the standard variety 
for all but the northern states ; it is of the highest 
type, spineless and of a rich, purple color, large 
and borne in abundance ; it is not as early as Black 

150 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

Beauty, long a favorably known sort, which is 
about twelve days earlier; Very Early Dwarf 
Purple is still earlier and Black Pekin is another 
good sort. In the northern states the earliest 
variety should be planted, but the e,gg plant has 
one remarkable characteristic — for a plant so ten- 
der in its early stages it seems, when fully grown, 
almost immune to cold and early frost, and I 
have often gathered unharmed fruit after severe 
frost had cut most everything else in the garden. 
Throwing some loose stuff — clover hay, corn fod- 
der or weeds — over the plants on a cold night will 
usually save them and a spell of warm weather 
that usually follows the first hard frosts may 
bring on immature fruit to a usable size. It re- 
quires about five months from the sowing of the 
seed to produce usable fruit so it will readily be 
seen that it is important to start the seed in the 
hotbed, gi-eenhouse or in the house and to take 
every precaution to grow them on rapidly without 
any check. 



151 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

OKEA 

So well and favorably known in the southern 
states, is practically unknown in the north, ex- 
cept as its acquaintance is made in the chicken 
gumbo of the commercial soups and a few other 
vegetable and meat preparations. It should, 
however, form a staple vegetable of the kitchen 
garden and, once its merits are known, would, 
doubtless, become as popular north as it is south. 
Though its use is chiefly associated with the prep- 
aration of soup it has other, equally acceptable, 
uses. It is an excellent addition to hash, adding 
both richness and flavor ; added to tomatoes it im- 
parts a fuller, richer flavor and used alone, fried, 
is excellent. A small amount of meat, with the 
addition of potatoes, okra and onion, the last two 
fried tender before adding the meat and pota- 
toes, makes a most satisfying one-dish meal. 

It is one of the easiest vegetables to grow, re- 
quiring the same cultm-e as corn ; making the rows 
three feet apart, and planting the seed in drills 

152 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

and thinning to ten inches apart in the row. 
Perkin's Long Pod is the best general variety 
and the pods should be gathered when half grown, 
whether needed or not, to prevent checking the 
production. 

PEPPERS 

Like the egg plant require much heat in start- 
ing and should be given the warmest posistion 
in the hotbed — about the central sash, towards 
the front — so that they may not be overtopped 
by other, taller growing plants, for the pepper 
grows but slowly for the first few weeks of its 
existence. 

The seed germinates slowly, taking from two 
to three weeks to appear; it may be sown thinly 
in drills, or broadcasted, covering sufficiently to 
conceal the seed and placing paper over the plot 
to prevent drying out. If started in flats in the 
house the plants may be transplanted into other 
flats when they have made one pair of true leaves; 
if not crowded in the hotbed they may be al- 

153 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

lowed to remain where they are or be transplanted 
into fresh rows, setting them a couple of inches 
apart each way. 

They should not be planted out in the open 
ground until the soil and nights are warm as a 
check at this time will mean late fruiting and 
failure to ripen. Make the rows from twenty- 
four to thirty inches apart and set the plants 
eighteen inches apart in the row. Before plant- 
ing spade a forkful of old manure or henhouse 
droppings into each hill for the pepper is a heavy 
feeder and requires good soil. 

Protect the plants on cold nights if frost threat- 
ens and keep the ground well cultivated. 

If the peppers are to be grown in the north 
such varieties as mature their fruits early should 
be selected. Crimson Giant is about the earliest ; 
the plants are large and bear abundantly. The 
Upright New Sweet Pepper is also early, a good 
bearer and its habit of fruiting — holding the fruit 
erect instead of drooping — makes it very easy to 
gather; it is a medium-size pepper, just right 
for stuffing for mangoes and a desirable size to 

154 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

pickle for winter use in salads; if the top and 
bottom are removed it leaves a broad ring which 
is very lovely when filled with salad and garnished 
with parsley and well-blanched endive; the parts 
removed may be used as pickles or added to mixed 
or chopped pickles. 

Magnum Dulce is an excellent sort for baking 
when stuffed with meat or force-meat or fried. 
Pimento is a new salad pepper very attractive in 
shape and form but does not do so well in the 
north as some of the older sorts; however, some 
seasons it can be successfully grown and a few 
plants set out will be well worth taking pains 
with. In the warmer sections and in favorable 
seasons at the north one can grow the fiery 
Tabasco Pepper from which the Tabasco sauce 
of commerce is made and so prepare one's supply 
of this expensive relish ; it requires early planting 
and great attention to heat and sunshine to 
succeed. 

The little Celestial Peppers are so very at- 
tractive when grown in pots that florists offer 
them along with other greenhouse stuff ; they can 

155 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

just as well be grown in one's own hotbed or 
house and make welcome gifts to the young house- 
keeper or the city dweller who does not have the 
advantage of a country garden to furnish condi- 
ments and relishes. The little plants can be 
grown in pots from the start or small plants in 
the garden can be taken up and potted and will 
hold their tiny scarlet fruit all winter, producing 
more as the first is removed. For the sunny 
kitchen or dining room window nothing is prettier 
or more ornamental than a window box filled with 
these little red peppers, parsley and endive. 

Cayenne peppers can be grown for the making 
of pepper vinegar; the seeds are used for this, 
being separated from the husk when dry and put 
into quart bottles filled with white wine vinegar; 
in a few weeks the vinegar will be ready for use. 
The hulls may be saved and put in cans of mixed 
pickles, a few hulls adding a piquant hotness; 
they may also be added to pickled onions and to 
cauliflower. 

As peppers are extremelj'' sensitive to frost 
every effort should be made to bring them along 

156 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

rapidly so that they may mature their fruit in 
season ; light application of nitrate will assist and 
the use of poultry droppings in preparing the bed 
will be of use; in diy weather a wetting with 
water from the laundry will do much good. If 
it is possible to pipe or carry water with hose to 
the garden a shallow trench may be made along 
the pepper rows and water turned in as required. 
Protecting with papers or other covering on 
frosty nights may save a crop but the covering 
should not rest on the plants as the frost will 
likely strike through ; hay or corn fodder would be 
likely to give better protection. 

TOMATOES 

Are one of the most important vegetables of the 
home garden not alone as a summer vegetable, 
but also as an important part of the winter 
cuisine, more tomatoes being canned for winter 
use than all other vegetables. 

Tomatoes require no expert care to grow ; they 
are one of the easiest managed of vegetables, but 
they do require heat for starting if they are to 

157 



The Busy .Woman s Garden Book 

be got to bearing in season to give a bountiful 
crop before frost. It takes about four months 
from the time the seed is sown to produce a crop 
of the main crop tomato. Some of the very early 
sorts will come into bearing early in July; un- 
fortunately, however, these very early varieties 
lack the full, delicious flavor of the later fruit. 

The tomatoes should not be set in the open 
ground until all danger of frost is over; they 
should be given rich soil and a spadeful of manure 
added to the hill in which they are planted. If 
the plants are allowed to lie on the ground make 
the hills four feet apart each way, but if they are 
to be staked or trained on a trellis three feet will 
give sufficient room ; both methods of culture have 
advantages ; the latter keeps the fruit up off the 
ground, makes pickling easy and perhaps 
produces more perfect fruit ; less room is required 
for growing the same number of plants than 
would be required for the former method. The 
first method has this advantage, — the plants suf- 
fer least in a dry season as the vines shade the 
ground, and prevent the excessive evaporation 

158 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

of moisture and require, accordingly, less culti- 
vation ; then the branches will root wherever they 
touch the soil and so draw moisture and nourish- 
ment fro mit; a much larger amount of fruit is 
produced from plants allowed to rest on the 
ground, and if straw is laid under the plants it 
will keep them from getting soiled and rotting 
if the season is wet. 

Where the plants are to be staked a six foot 
stake should be set at each hill at the time the 
plant is set and the plant tied to it at intervals 
as it grows. Pinch off the top as soon as it 
reaches the top of the stake and remove all but 
a few of the side branches, pinching in those that 
remain to make a shapely plant. I think the rack 
system of training is preferable to the stake. 

A long trellis or rack, about eighteen inches 
or two feet high and two feet wide, is constructed 
of narrow strips of wood and placed over the 
tomato rows, the plants growing up through the 
center of the frame and spreading out on top of 
it. This gives more bearing surface and the vines 
do not need to be tied to the wood ; such a trellis 

159 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

can be used for several years in succession if 
stored away in a dry place when not in use. The 
wire tomato supports on the market are good but 
costly and quite as satisfactory ones can be made 
at home from the wire or wooden hoops from 
barrels, stapled to stout stakes sharpened at one 
end. About three hoops should be used and three 
stakes. These, too, can be stored away for fu- 
ture use so that the first outlay is the last for 
a number of years. 

In setting out the plants from the hotbed select 
those with the stoutest stalks; it is not material 
whether they have grown tall or keeled over in 
the hotbed or not if the plant appears vigorous 
with a robust stem. If one has a good supply of 
plants to draw from one can discard all but the 
best. 

Prepare the hills in advance by forking in a 
forkful of old manure; if the plants are long, 
make a trench two-thirds the length of the stem 
with a deeper hole at one 'end; place the root in 
the hole and bend the top carefully into the trench, 
turning the tip up straight so that it stands four 

160 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

or five inches above the ground, draw in a part 
of the earth and fill the trench with water, fill 
in the remainder of the soil, pressing snugly, 
make a fine dry mulch about the plant and the 
work is done. The long stem buried in the trench 
will send out roots all its length and will have a 
much greater root system than a plant set with 
just a few inches of stem in the ground; such a 
plant set in such a way, invariably lives and makes 
a strong plant, but to plant it with only the root 
part under the ground would only invite the loss 
of the plant. 

The plot should be looked over the following 
morning to see if cut worms have cut ofir any of 
the plants during the night and to restore, if nec- 
essary, the dust-mulch. 

Plants grown on stakes or trellises are more 
susceptible to frost than those grown on the 
ground as the soil holds the heat and it is an easy 
matter to cover a considerable number of plants 
at one time with tarpaulin or even newspapers and 
this should be done when there is even a slight 
prospect of frost. The thermometer should be 

161 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

watched in the late fall and if it is going down 
towards nightfall those plants which one wishes 
to save should be protected. 

After the first three hard frosts there are 
usually two or three weeks of fine weather and it 
is at this time that tomatoes and other perishable 
garden stuff command the highest price and 
those who are fortunate enough to have a surplus 
to sell can realize a neat little sum that will more 
than pay for the trifling trouble involved. 

I am often asked which is the best tomato for 
the home garden and have no hesitation in saying 
that, all things considered, there is no better to- 
mato raised, for an all season crop, than the 
Dwarf, Improved Stone. There are earlier to- 
matoes and larger tomatoes. The Early Detroit 
is earlier, but not very much so, and it does not 
compare in size and quality with the Stone. Pon- 
derosa is a much larger tomato but the quality is 
not up to the Stone nor is its freedom from crack- 
ing and irregularity to be compared to the Stone. 
Then the Stone is such a satisfactory plant in 
the way of fohage and stem, so heavy and rugged, 

162 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

the thick, crumply leaves are very distinctive and 
the plants always command attention even when 
not in fruit. The fruit is quite as large as best 
requirements demand and it slices beautifully for 
the table and canned is entirely free from that 
pecuhar taste that characterizes the commercial 
tomato. 

Earliana is the earliest and the most popular 
sort of the extra early tomato and a few plants 
for early use will be worth while. There is also 
a new ball-shaped tomato, New Globe, that is 
good for slicing as it gives a number of fine slices 
just alike instead of the three usually obtained 
from a flat tomato, only one — the middle — being 
perfect. So if one wants a variety in the garden 
one may plant with entire confidence the Dwarf 
Stone and Vaughan's Improved New Stone and 
add for variety the Earliana and the New Globe. 

SQUASH 
ENGLISH MARROW 

In sections where the egg-plant does not do 
well, or where one lacks the skill to succeed with 

163 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

it a very satisfactory substitute will be found in 
the English marrow; this is a bush form of the 
vegetable marrows and occupies about as much 
ground as an egg-plant. The vine sorts are such 
rampant growers that they require a garden to 
themselves or at least a walled enclosure, but they 
are very profitable to grow as they produce 
enormously and the fruit is excellent fried like 
egg plant; few, if any, persons would be able to 
distinguish between them and the difference, if 
any, would be in favor of the marrow. 

Rich warm soil is required for all the squash 
family and the bush varieties are no exceptions. 
Give in addition to the usual manuring of the 
garden a good forkful of manure in each hill. 
Space the hills four feet apart each way and 
plant several seeds in each hill to provide for 
the appetite of the squash bugs which make no 
exception in favor of bush varieties ; when danger 
of bugs is past the plants should be thinned to 
three or four plants in a hill. 

To repel the squash vine borer scatter a hand- 
164 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

ful of tobacco dust about the plants and at the 
first appearance of wilt in the leaves examine the 
stems carefully for the point where the worm 
found entrance and either slit the stalk sufficiently 
to uncover the worm or run a wire up the stalk 
until he is encountered and killed; then if pos- 
sible, bury the wound in soil so that the branch 
may be saved; if, however, there is too much in- 
jury done or the wound is too high up it will be 
best to remove that part of the branch; at the 
same time the rest of the plants should be care- 
fully examined for other signs of injury, and 
the ground inspected for larvse. For yellow 
striped beetle and blight spray early and repeat- 
edly with Bordeaux arsenate of lead mixture. 

The marrows are finer eating when onty two- 
thirds grown. They should be peeled, sliced and 
covered with salt for an hour, then rinsed and 
drained and breaded and fried the same as egg- 
plant, or, if preferred, may be cooked and mashed 
like summer squash. They are good either way. 



165 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

TURNIPS 

Have an important place in the garden as they 
may be used as a catch crop almost any time 
dm'ing summer. Wherever vacancies occur in 
rows of early vegetables and it is inconvenient 
owing to lack of seed or other reasons to replant 
with the same vegetable, then one may have re- 
course to the ever useful turnip and fill in the 
hiatus with that. Turnips are at their best when 
young and tender, about three inches in diam- 
eter, and a constant succession can be assured by 
planting in this way or where the first crop of 
vegetables has been removed. For fall and win- 
ter use sowings may be made in July and August. 
Success frequently results from sowing among 
the sweet corn just before the last cultivation; 
with favorable weather a crop will mature before 
severe freezing weather and turnips are the better 
for a touch of frost. 

Open a shallow drill with the hand plough or 
by dragging the corner of the hoe along the row 
and scatter the seed very thinly. If the planting 

166 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

is in full rows make them a foot or fifteen inches 
apart. As soon as the plants are large enough, 
thin to stand three or four inches apart; this is 
important as fine, smooth roots cannot be pro- 
duced if crowded. 

The turnip maggot is the greatest enemy the 
turnip has and it sometimes appears in gardens 
that have been entirely free from it and I think 
is brought in in the seed. It is the same little 
worm that works its tortuous way through and 
around the radish and, although I have never 
grown a wormy radish, still last season an entire 
planting of turnips were ruined by this pest, so 
as I was quite sure it was not previously present 
in the soil I am forced to the conviction that I 
bought and planted it together with the seed. 
Moral — Buy seed of reliable dealers and examine 
carefully for worm holes before planting. 

The Purple-top White Globe is a most popu- 
lar market sort. Snowball is a white variety of 
fine appearance and early maturity and if used 
young is very tender and sweet. Earl}^ White 
Egg is another good early sort and for those who 

167 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

like a yellow turnip the Yellow Globe is a satis- 
factory sort. It makes a larger root than the 
others and is excellent both for table use and for 
feeding stock. It is a dependable root for feed- 
ing Belgian or other hares as it keeps well, buried 
in earth in a frost-proof cellar, and when gathered 
for winter use the tops can be piled in a cool place 
and fed to the bunnies. Of course this appHes 
to all turnips which are grown for winter use. 

The planting of turnips, radishes and cabbage 
should be watched closely for signs of the root 
maggot. The presence of a little, dark-colored 
fly about the plant is always cause for suspicion 
and when seen it will be well to take precaution- 
ary measures. As tobacco in any form is ob- 
noxious to most insect life, the strewing of to- 
bacco dust on the ground will usually drive these 
flies away and prevent the laying of eggs, 
but the trouble is that they may have already 
laid eggs before being discovered. Hot water 
poured around the plant in sufficient quantity to 
soak the soil an inch or so will often destroy the 

16'8 



Mid-Season Vegetables 

eggs and larvee too. Soaking the ground with 
Paris green solution — a teaspoonful of the poison 
to a large watering pot of water is sufficient and 
the solution must be kept stirred to prevent its 
settling — will destroy the maggot, but it may also 
poison the turnip so is not to be recommended; 
also, if the worm has attacked the radish or tur- 
nip and rendered it unsightly and unfit for the 
table, tobacco and hot water then are the two 
safest and most rehable applications and the 
hot water over the tobacco is especially effective. 
Disks made from heavy tar paper are sold for 
the protection of cabbage and cauliflower plants 
and may be cheaply made at home and though a 
little more trouble to apply about turnips and 
radishes still are practical and better than losing 
the crop. The disks may be either round or 
square and should be about three inches in diam- 
eter with a hole the size of the stem in the center 
and a slit extending out from the hole on one side 
to the edge; this allows the disk to be slipped 
around the stem of the plant. A leather punch 

109 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

which will cut a quarter of an inch hole may be 
used and the slit made to the center of the disk 
and the hole then cut. The disk lies flat on the 
ground and prevents the entrance of the fly to 
deposit the egg and the tar paper repels. 



170 



CHAPTER X 

VEGETABLES OF THE VINE FAMILY 

CUCUMBERS 

FOR main crop or pickle cucumbers should 
be planted in the open ground from June 
until the middle of July; at this season there is 
less danger of damage from the striped cucumber 
beetle and the stink bug, both serious enemies of 
the vine family; but even so late in the season 
it will be well to take the easy precaution of strew- 
ing tobacco stems or dust on the hill about the 
plants. 

For pickles plant in hills four to six feet apart 
each way and keep the entire sui'face of the 
ground clean with frequent cultivation. Hoeing 
about the hills and running the hand cultivator 
with the scuffle-hoe attachment between the hills 
will be sufficient, but no weeds should be allowed 
to make a start, as once the vines have begun to 

171 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

cover the ground it will be difficult to eradicate 
the weeds and the vines must not be tramped on 
or handled unnecessarily. When the plants are 
a foot long pinch out the ends of the branches to 
induce branching and check too rampant a 
growth. Pull up all but three or four plants 
when all danger of bugs is past. Keep a close 
watch for root maggot, borer, and wilt. Spray 
with Bordeaux arsenate of lead mixture at the 
first appearance of wilt, and continue once a 
week until the fruit appears ; after that it will not 
be safe to use the poison. 

Gather the pickles frequently — every other day 
if bearing well; do not allow fruit to grow large 
or ripen on the vines if grown for pickles as this 
will check production. 

One of the best table varieties is Early Fortune 
— also a desirable pickling variety. Arlington, 
White Spine and Davis's Perfect are excellent 
table sorts and Chicago Pickle— a standard pickle 
sort — and Long Green, or Jersey Pickle and the 
Westerfield's Chicago Pickle are all excellent 
types for growing for pickles. 

172 



Vegetables of the Vine Family 

CITRON 

Used for preserving and for sweet pickles, re- 
quire the same treatment as melons and squash. 
Seed may be planted directly in the open ground 
or started on pieces of sod in the hotbed; this is 
preferable as the fruit sometimes fails to ripen 
in a short season and unless fully ripened on 
the vine the preserves have a watery taste, no 
matter how carefully prepared. Citron make 
about the same length of vine as the watermelon 
so should be planted from five to six feet apart, 
and when the vines are a foot in length the tips 
should be pinched off to induce branching and 
check too straying a habit. Keep cultivated, re- 
membering that the dust-mulch is the best garden 
insurance and spray with Bordeaux mixture 
against blight and use tobacco dust liberally as a 
preventive measure against the yellow striped 
beetle and the squash bug. 

MUSK MELONS 

In securing seed for growing musk melons one 
should take into consideration the climate and 

173 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

the length of the growing season. Certain vari- 
eties of melon require certain climatic conditions 
and will not give satisfaction if these are lacking. 
Melons that are adapted to the chmate of Col- 
orado — like the Rocky Ford, the Honey Dew and 
the like seldom do well in the east and middle 
west where early frosts are apt to find the fruit 
still immature, but there are many other excel- 
lent varieties well adapted to these sections. The 
Extra Early Hackensack, the Osage, the Ironde- 
quoit and others can be grown with satisfaction 
and all are especially fine and large. 

As a general thing I think a large melon, sweet- 
ness and flavor being equal, preferable. One 
of the sweetest melons with which I am ac- 
quainted is the old Cassaba; this is the largest 
musk melon grown — a perfect specimen being 
from twelve to fifteen inches in length and as 
much as one wishes to carry up from the garden, 
but the delicate green flesh is melted sugar, noth- 
ing less, with a flavor all its own. 

For an early crop of melons one should start 
the seed in the hotbed on squares of sod, using 

174 



Vegetables of the Vine Family 

plenty of seed so that one will have an assured 
stand, and transplant when all danger of frost 
is past. If one only grows a few hills it will well 
repay one for the extra trouble to cover the hills 
with shallow boxes, covered with wire netting or 
mosquito netting. The boxes should not be 
more than four inches high and about twelve 
inches square, or thereabouts ; if removed as soon 
as danger of bugs is past and stored in a dry 
place they will last for a number of years. 
Empty biscuit boxes sawed in two make good 
frames or strips of three inch lumber can quickly 
be converted into frames by any one handy with 
hammer and saw. 

Dry weather is one of the serious drawbacks to 
melon culture as the drought usually comes just 
as the fruit is setting. Sinking tin cans, with 
holes punched in the sides near the bottom, to 
the top in the soil in the middle of the hill and 
keeping them filled with water will be of much 
assistance in bringing the fruit on to maturity. 
Occasionally too much rain interferes with the 
ripening of the fruit ; in such cases the empty can 

175 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

will act as a drain pipe by accumulating water 
from the surface soil. The glass plant protectors 
used in early spring are helpful in concentrating 
the little sunshine cloudy weather affords and 
where these are not available old window glass 
may be used to afford protection from rain and 
wind for a few days. This should be supported 
on the north side by a frame or stout stakes, 
their lower edge resting on the ground. 

The best soil for melons is a warm, sandy soil 
well enriched with barnyard manure and a sup- 
plementary shovelful should be placed in each 
hill. JMake the hills about six feet apart each 
way, and thin out to three plants to a hill. If 
desired such small sorts as Rocky Ford, Paul 
Rose, Hoodoo and the like may be grown on 
netting; they will not, perhaps, bear as freely, 
but the fruit will be more perfect than when 
grown on the ground, and there is this advantage 
that the fruit drops when perfectly ripe so that 
there is no uncertainty about gathering it. 
Where there is only a small garden spot avail- 
able the growing of melons, cucumbers and the 

176 



Vegetables of the Vine Family 

like on netting is a distinct advantage ; the culti- 
vation then becomes as simple as that of a row 
of peas and can be continued throughout the 
season; gathering the fruit is much simplified as 
there are no vines to be trampled on and if water 
is needed it can be quickly apphed along the row. 
Melons grown on netting are easily protected 
from early frost, but it is difficult to cover any 
considerable area on the ground. 

WATERMELONS 

Require the same treatment as musk-melons 
except that it is all right that they should be 
started in the open ground, spacing the hills from 
eight to ten feet apart each way ; giving a spade- 
ful of manure in each hill. Spray with Bor- 
deaux arsenate of lead mixtui'e once or twice, 
using a much weaker dilution than for other vines. 
Pinch out the ends of the vines. Keep culti- 
vated and free from weeds. Avoid stepping on 
the vines or handling them unnecessarily. 

Cole's Early, Kleckley Sweet and the new 
melon — Tom Watson — are all good sorts of much 

177 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

sweetness and crispness of flesh. The first is 
well adapted to the northern states, the Kleckley 
a few days later than Cole's Early. A few Win- 
ter Watermelons will extend the season long 
into the winter as this variety may be gathered 
at the approach of cold weather and stored in a 
cool, frost-proof cellar and will retain its delicious 
flavor and sweetness for weeks. Unhke the other 
melons mentioned, which are oblong and green, 
and very tender of rind, the Winter is round, 
nearly white-skinned and of a hardness approach- 
ing the citron. The flesh, however, is red and 
very firm. It must not be concluded that the 
Winter is a late season melon, for it is one of the 
earliest, continuing to bear until frost cuts the 
vines, so that it may be grown for a single melon 
crop if desired. 

SQUASH 

Winter squash are an important garden prod- 
uct, not much appreciated during the flush 
times of summer but coming into its own at the 
approach of cold weather; the culture is prac- 

178 



Vegetables of the Vine Family 

tically that of all vine products. Starting seed 
on sod in the hotbed and transplanting has much 
to recommend it as the squash seems to attract 
more than a fair sort of attention from striped 
cucumber beetle, squash bugs, stink worm and 
blight. The vine borer also takes its tithe of the 
plant and a sudden wilting of the leaves is indica- 
tion that he is at work; he should be hunted for 
and killed. Usually there is little hopes of sav- 
ing the injured branch; if anything will do it 
it will be burying the wound in earth and keeping 
it moist for a time until it either heals or sends 
out roots at the nearest joint and so becomes an 
independent plant. 

As a rule squash, melons, cucumbers and the 
like will not transplant. It often happens that 
about all of the seed planted in some hills will 
germinate and make strong plants while other 
hills will have but one or two plants and it is de- 
sired to transplant some of the extra plants into 
hills where they are needed; attempts to do this 
with a trowel invariably fail; it is possible, how- 
ever, to transplant an entire hill — or a part of one 

179 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

if spaced far enough apart, by passing a spade 
down into the ground at a sufficient distance from 
the plant to avoid disturbing the roots and hfting 
a large spadeful of earth with the plants. The 
hill that is to receive them should have been pre- 
pared in advance so that the earth may slide off 
the spade into the hole without disturbing or 
breaking it in the least; the soil should not be 
pressed down as this would have a tendency to 
crumble, but any space about it should be filled 
in carefully and water poured around it. Squash 
or other vines moved in this way invariably live 
and go on growing without any appreciable set- 
back. A considerable patch of winter squash 
— the Delicious — was entirely secured by taking 
up plants that had come up self sown in various 
places; somewhere some immature squash were 
left in the garden the fall before ; some came from 
the frame around a standpipe in the barnyard 
which was filled with coal ashes. How the squash 
came to come up in that unusual place is un- 
known, but there were a number of nice plants 
and these were lifted on the spade and carried — ■ 

180 



Vegetables of the Vine Family 

a spadeful at a time — and planted where they 
were wanted and the entire patch was very thrifty 
and bore abundantly. 

Spraying, hand picking and attention to culti- 
vation are essential in growing squash as with 
other garden crops. The dust-mulchc is the one 
certain assurance against failure. 

The Hubbard Squash, both Golden and 
Warted, have long been standard sorts, but both 
have lost, through much careless breeding, the 
qualities which distinguished them — dryness and 
sweetness. It is practically impossible of late 
years to find an individual of either variety that 
is really dry or sweet or that has keeping qual- 
ities equal to the early sorts. In the Delicious 
we have a much superior squash whose di-yness 
is notable and sweetness all that one could de- 
sire, even small, immature specimens possess the 
quality in high degree. Unless one has home 
grown seed from a Hubbard that was perfect in 
these qualities I should advise planting the seed 
of Delicious and saving one's own seed from the 
best specimen of that. 

181 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

SUMMER SQUASH 

Then there are all the varieties of summer 
squashes — Summer Crookneck, Giant Summer 
Crookneck, the Vegetable Marrows, and the 
several bush forms, which are a boon to the small 
kitchen garden as they take little room and are 
always within bounds; they include the Bush 
Fordhook, used as a summer squash when green, 
or ripe, a good keeper, often lasting until the next 
season's crop is ready. The Mammoth White 
Bush or Patty Pan, Early Yellow Bush, Early 
Golden Bush and Bush English Marrow are all 
good sorts — either cooked and mashed or egged 
and fried like egg plant. All require the same 
general treatment and all bear heavily and early. 
The summer squash are planted in the open 
ground any time that is suitable for planting 
corn. To guard against loss by seed decaying in 
the ground if the season is wet, set the seeds on 
edge, instead of laying them flat ; this is advisable 
with all flat seeds of pronounced size; cover half 
an inch and mark the hills so that cultivation can 

182 



Vegetables of the Vine Family 

commence at once. Covering the hills with 
frames will save much woriv in combating insects 
or a cap of window screening will be effectual; 
this is made from a round piece of netting with a 
slit on one side from center to edge to allow its 
being bent in a tent shape. A stick should be 
fastened to it to hold it together and anchor it to 
the ground ; this can be easily arranged by taking 
a piece of w^ood four or five inches longer than the 
cap and splitting it half its length, inserting the 
wire where it laps into the split, and thrusting the 
free end into the ground. These little caps are 
very practical as they can be flattened out and laid 
away when no longer required, occupying very 
little space to store and for that reason are prefer- 
able to the boxes. 

Squash vines may be kept from growing too 
rampant by shortening the branches. They 
should always be pinched back as soon as they 
have made a foot, or less, of growth and when 
fruit is well set on the vines the ends may be 
severely cut back to insure the early maturity 
of the fruit already set. I have removed branches 

183 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

several feet long and bearing half -grown squash 
from vines of the English marrow without the 
least ill effect and have no doubt that similar 
treatment would be well borne by the Hubbard 
or other winter squash, and so save much useless 
growth and conserve the strength of the vine for 
the main crop of squash and, perhaps, induce a 
dryer, sweeter product. 

SWEET POTATOES 

'The easiest way to raise one's own sweet pota- 
toes is to buy already started plants of the mar- 
ket gardeners who make a business of starting 
them for sale; but if one prefers to plant the 
tubers and raise one's own plants, and the pota- 
toes are available — which seldom is the case un- 
less one has kept them over in a warm cellar 
buried in sand — then the potatoes are cut the same 
as Irish potatoes, one eye to a piece, and started 
in a warm hotbed in April. Before planting 
the pieces of potato it is a wise precaution to 
dip each piece in sulphur to protect against black 
rot. The plants should not be set out in the 

184j 



Vegetables of the Vine Family 

open ground until the nights are warm and all 
danger of frost is passed. The hills should be 
three feet apart each way at least as the vines 
make quite a rank growth. Warm, sandy soil, 
well fertilized, is necessary and a trowelful of 
poultry droppings may be added to each hill for 
good results. Cultivate thoroughly and often 
and when the vines become too long to make culti- 
vating convenient they may be lifted and coiled 
around the top of the hill, the hill, by the way, 
not being a hill at all in the common acceptance 
of the term but merely a level space devoted to 
the growing of the potato. It is quite important 
that the ground immediately about the plant be 
kept clean, so that when the vines are coiled up 
they need not be again disturbed to remove weeds. 
The space between the plants should be kept 
mellow and free from weeds throughout the 
growing season. Sweet potatoes are quite as 
easy to gi'ow as Irish potatoes, easier, in fact, as 
they have fewer enemies and are not attacked by 
the potato beetle. They are more difficult to 
keep, however, and should be stored in boxes of 
dry sand in a warm, dry cellar over winter. 

185 



CHAPTER XI 

VEGETABLES LESS COMMONLY GROWN 

THERE is a considerable number of vegeta- 
bles that are seldom encountered in the gen- 
eral garden, many of which are well worthy of ac- 
quaintance. Many of them are famihar to the 
city housekeper through the medium of the fruit 
stores and the delicatessen stores; more of them 
appear in the gardens of the foreign residents and 
might be adopted for general cultivation with 
good results. 

ARTICHOKES 

Which appear as an especial delicacy on the 
menus of the big hotels and restaurants on special 
occasions only, are not difficult to grow in sections 
of the country where the winters are not too se- 
vere. They will not stand the winters of the 
northern states, however, and in any longitude 
north of the Ohio, are better for winter protec- 

186 



V egetables Less Commonly Grown 

tion. Given a mild winter climate they are as 
easily raised as a cabbage or an ear of corn and 
are far more ornamental, indeed so striking and 
handsome are the plants that they may be grown 
for their eif ectiveness alone. 

The plants are grown from seed started in a 
hotbed in March or earlier and planted out in 
rich mellow soil when the weather is suitable. 
Set the plants three feet apart each way. The 
plants do not bear until the second year, but they 
may be had in cold sections by purchasing the 
plants of the florist at any time after the middle 
of April. As many imdesirable sorts are often 
obtained from seed it is a more certain way of get- 
ting good varieties to purchase the plants. They 
are, however, more expensive than other vegetable 
plants and where they can not be carried over the 
winter are somewhat expensive, costing one dollar 
and fifty cents a dozen. However, a dozen will 
be ample for a small family. 

The unopened flower head is the part eaten and 
it is served raw as a salad or cooked in various 
ways as an entree. 

187 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

They should receive the same culture as okra or 
corn, thorough cultivation and water if the sea- 
son is unduly dry. At the approach of severe 
weather the tops should be cut off close to the 
crown and the plants banked up with coal ashes, 
which should be removed in the spring before 
growth begins. 

ARTICHOKE, JERUSALEM 

Though sometimes used as a vegetable and for 
pickling is especially valuable for feeding stock, 
especially swine which are allowed to harvest it by 
rooting it out of the ground. It is claimed that 
an acre of ground planted to artichoke will keep 
from twenty to thirty hogs from October to April. 
They have a special value as a means of clearing 
a piece of land of undesirable weed growths — 
like Canada Thistle, quack grass or locust 
sprouts, as the hogs in rooting for the tubers will 
destroy the weed roots, thus redeeming a piece 
of land that may be utihzed for garden crops or 
fruit. 



188 



Vegetables Less Commonly Grown 

In planting the tubers are cut and planted the 
same as potatoes and cultivated in the same way 
until the crop is matured sufficiently to turn the 
hogs on it or they may be harvested to feed during 
winter to any stock which needs a succulent win- 
ter food. 

BROCCOLI 

A vegetable similar to cauliflower, but of some- 
what coarser flavor. It is hardier than cauli- 
flower and will do well in sections where cauli- 
flower is not successfully grown. For rapid 
growth it should receive frequent cultivation and 
be grown in rich soil. Sow seed very early in 
greenhouse, hotbed or warm window and set 
out as soon as the ground can be prepared in 
spring, setting the plants the same distance apart 
as cabbage and drawing the earth up about the 
roots when hoeing. White Cap is about the best 
variety, making fine, large, compact heads of a 
creamy-white color, of good flavor. 



189 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

BRUSSELS SPROUTS 

These little miniature cabbages, growing 
closely together on a stalk, are delicious boiled 
like cabbage or used as a salad. The culture is the 
same as that accorded cabbage. The seed should 
be sown in the hotbed in spring and set out in 
the open ground in May in rows three feet apart 
and about twenty inches apart in the rows. Culti- 
vate to keep down weeds and maintain a dust- 
mulch. By fall the little heads will be fully de- 
veloped. The delicate flavor is improved by 
a touch of frost. For late use sow seed in June. 

CHICORY 

Sow seed in the open ground early in spring as 
for parsnips, thinning to stand three inches apart 
in the rows and making the rows fifteen inches 
apart. Dig the roots in the fall and store in a 
dark cellar where the temperature can be con- 
trolled. Cut the leaves off a little above the 
root crown and place them in horizontal layers 
with the crowns outward covering each layer, ex- 
cepting the tip of the crown, with earth. Each 

190 



Vegetables Less Commonly Grown 

layer should be a little narrower than the one be- 
neath so that they form a sloping bank. It is 
the tender white leaves produced in the dark that 
are used for salad. Another form of Chicory, 
the Large Rooted, is used to mix with or substi- 
tute for coffee, being sliced, dried, roasted and 
ground. 

Witloof Chicory, or French Endive as it is 
sold by dealers in fancy fruits and vegetables, is 
sown in June in drills a foot apart and cultivated 
until frost, when the plants should be taken up 
and trimmed to an inch and a half from the neck 
and replaced upright in trenches about sixteen 
inches deep, setting the plants about an inch and a 
half apart. The trench is then filled in with soil 
and covered with manure to hasten growth. The 
tender, white tops will be ready for use in about a 
month and are eaten raw, like celery, used as a 
salad or cooked. 

CELERIAC 

Or turnip-rooted celery is grown for its bulbous 
root, which has a distinct celery flavor and in 

191 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

gardens where celery will not succeed it makes 
a very good substitute. It is used, cooked, either 
as a salad or as a vegetable. It is cultivated 
much as celery is, only it does not require the 
banking so necessary with that plant. It may, 
however, be blanched and is said to be very fine 
that way. Delicatesse is a fine sort with per- 
fectly smooth root, free from side rootlets, pure 
white, tender and excellent in quality. Giant 
Prague is another fine sort. Earliest of All is 
ready for use in June and is a good sort. 

CHERVILLE 

Resembles parsley and is used for garnishing 
and for seasoning. Cultivate hke parsley, mak- 
ing the rows a foot apart and thin to six inches. 

COLLAEDS 

Grown at the south as greens and as a substi- 
tute for cabbage. Plant seed in rows, thinning 
or transplanting to a foot apart in the row. It is 
improved by a touch of frost. 



192 



Vegetables Less Commonly Grown 



CORN SALAD 

Sow in spring in drills a foot apart. For 
winter and spring use sow in drills in August 
and September and cultivate like lettuce or other 
salad stuff. 

CRESS 

Upland Cress, which has the flavor of water- 
cress, can be grown in any good garden soil with- 
out the presence of water. The seed should be 
sown very freely in rows one foot apart, making 
repeated sowings for succession as the plant soon 
runs to seed. Water-cress can be grown about a 
water hydrant if the soil is clayey, or can be 
underlaid with a few inches of clay. Water- 
cress sown at intervals in such a position will give 
a supply of the pungent green that will be a very 
welcome addition to lettuce, corn or other salad. 
Remove a foot or eighteen inches of the soil for 
a square yard of space and in the excavation thus 
formed lay a few inches of clay, tamping and 
puddling it down until it makes a continuous 

193 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

layer, then apply a few inches of earth rich in 
humus or marsh earth, leaving the surface 
slightly lower than the surrounding soil and 
scatter the seed broadcast and keep free from 
weeds until up and growing. Allow the hydrant 
to drip sufficiently to maintain sufficient moisture. 
Continue to scatter seeds at intervals for a suc- 
cession of cress. 

DANDELION 

For those who love the bitter tang of the 
dandelion as a green, the cultivated affords a 
much finer dish than the wild as the leaves are 
double the size of the wild dandelion. The seed 
should be sown in drills, covering very lightly and 
shading with newspapers or brush until up. 
Thin to stand a foot apart and blanch, if desu-ed, 
by inverting a box or flower-pot over each plant, 
or a cone of stiff paper can be used. For greens, 
only the top may be removed but for salad the 
plant may be cut down to the root, the part be- 
neath the surface of the ground being very white 
and tender. There is no danger of dandelion 

194 



Vegetables Less Commonly Grown 

grown in the garden becoming a troublesome 
weed as it is easily kept from seeding, which 
is its only way of spreading. 

FENNEL OR FINOCCHIO 

Is extensively used in Italy as a salad. The 
part used is the enlargement of the leaf stalk at 
the base of the stem. When this is about the 
size of an egg, the earth should be drawn up about 
the plant to cover the enlargement partly and in 
a week or ten days the eggs may. be used, remov- 
ing as many as required, a succession being pro- 
duced. The flavor is delicate, resembling celery, 
and it may be used either as a salad or boiled. 

GARLIC 

So beloved of the Italians is quite worth culti- 
vating in our American gardens. It is used in 
minute quantities as a seasoning in almost all 
forms of savory cooking, in omelets, salads, 
soups, dressings and wherever a piquant flavor, 
suggestive of onion, but distinctive, is desired. 
The garlic comes in a bunch of cloves which are 

195 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

separated and planted like onion sets an inch 
apart, but it requires warmer weather than the 
onion, succeeding especially well in the climate 
of California. It is, however, indigenous in a 
wild state in m.any parts of the country and cattle 
browsing in garlic-infested pastures have a dis- 
tinctive garlicky flavor to their milk. So agree- 
able is the taste of garlic or leeks in butter to some 
people that it was once quite common in the Phil- 
adelphia markets to hear "leeky butter" inquired 
for. 

KALE OR BORECOLE 

Are grown for greens and as a substitute for 
cabbage, being more hardy than that vegetable. 
For summer use sow the seed in the open ground 
in May or June and cultivate the same as cab- 
bage. For early spring use, sow seed in Sep- 
tember and protect during winter. Some of the 
varieties, like Imperial Long-standing Kale, are 
so hardy that they may be dug out from under 
the snow in the winter. Dwarf Curled Scotch 
is an excellent sort, veiy tender and fine flavored 

196 



V egetables Less Commonly Grown 

and with beautiful curled foliage. Dwarf Green 
Curled Kale and Excelsior Moss Curled Kale 
are other good sorts, very mossy, attractive and 
delicious. 

Sea Kale, less well known than the annual 
kale, is a hardy perennial that is cultivated some- 
what like asparagus, the seed being sown in the 
spring in rows three to four feet apart. The 
seedlings give a crop the third year but quicker 
results come from planting root cuttings or off- 
sets. The Sea Kale has a very long tap-root and 
should be grown in rich mellow soil that has been 
ploughed or dug very deep. As soon as shoots 
show above the ground blanch with boards, earth, 
sand or anything that will exclude light until 
ready for use. When blanched the leaf-stalk is 
cooked like asparagus or the leaves are used as 
greens. 

KOHL-RABI 

(Turnip-rooted cabbage) 
The bulb which grows on the stalk a few inches 
above the ground is the edible part of this vege- 

197 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

table. This is stripped and cooked like turnips, 
but is much more sweet and delicate. Sow seed 
in the open ground in June, making the rows 
sixteen inches apart and thin to six inches in the 
rows. Sow for succession from early spring 
until July. Cultivate like cabbage. 

LEEKS 

Sow seed in April in drills one foot apart and 
one inch deep. Transplant when large enough 
to handle or thin to stand six inches apart in the 
rows, setting the plants as deep as possible so 
that the earth will come up well about the neck 
to blanch and insure its whiteness and tenderness. 
In cultivating di-aw the earth up about the plants. 
Seed may also be sown in August or September, 
the same as onions, and the plants transplanted 
the following spring. 

Prizetaker Leek is a fine exhibition sort. 
Large Musselburg has enormous broad leaves 
and a pleasant flavor. Long Mezieres also has 
broad, erect leaves, fine flavor and a long, snow- 

198 



Vegetables Less Commonly Grown 

white stem and is very hardy. Leeks are a valu- 
able addition to the onion family of the garden. 

MARTYNIA 

The curious pods of this vine vegetable are 
used for pickling and produce a very fancy 
article. They should be gathered when only half 
grown. Sow the seed in the hotbed in spring and 
transplant into hills three feet apart each way 
and cultivate the same as cucumbers. The 
plants will self-sow and voluntary plants will 
appear each year so that once established one i^' 
quite sure of a supply. Seed may also be sown 
in the open ground, if preferred, in May. 



199 



CHAPTER XII 

QUANTITY OF SEED REQUIRED 



Name 



Ou^rcEs 



Pounds 



Drill 



Hills 



Acre 



Plants 



Asparagus 
Beans .... 
Bush Lima 
Pole Lima 

Beets 

Brussels 

Sprouts 
Cabbage 
Cauliflower 
Carrots . . 
Chicory . . 
Celery . . . 
Cucumbers 
Corn Salad 
Collards . . . 
Egg Plant 

Endive 

Kale 

Kohl-Rabi . 
Lettuce . . . 
Muskmelon 
Watermelon 

Onion 

Okra 

Parsley . . , 



4-5 

1 

1 

1 

5-6 



4 
3-4 



2 



3-3 
4-5 
4-5 



50 
50 

75-100 
50 

200 



lOO 
100 



100 

300 
300 



200 
100 
150 



200 



3000-4000 
3000 



5000-6000 

3000 
1000-2000 

5000 

3000 



200 



Quantity of Seed Required 



Name 

Parsnips 
Peppers . 

Peas 

Pumpkins 
Potatoes 
Radishes 
Rhubarb 
Salsify . . 
Squash . . 
Spinach . 
Tomatoes 
Turnips . 



Ounces 


Pounds 


Drill 


Hills 


ACEE 


1 


5-6 


200 




1 


1 


1 


50 






1 


13 


25 






1 




100 






1 




125 






1 




50 






1 


3-4 




25 


1 


1 


10-12 


100 




1 


1 










1 


1-2 


200 




1 



Plants 



1000-1500 



3000^000 



For those vegetables of which only a small 
quantity is grown the packets will be ample, most 
packets giving from one to two himdred plants, 
when started in the hotbed. 



SOI 



CHAPTER XIII 

SWEET, POT AND MEDICINAL HERBS 

ARE a very welcome addition to the kitchen 
garden, giving just the often needed touch 
to the achievement of a successful dish, a touch 
that will change an everyday vegetable or meat 
course to something unusual and fancy in 
cuisine, and with no trouble or added expense 
to the cook — just a little pinch of this or that, 
and what a difference it makes ! In most house- 
holds sage is depended on for the flavoring of 
poultry dressing, sausage and the like, in spite of 
the fact that it may be anything but pleasing to 
some member of the family or the welcome guest ; 
so accustomed are we to its use that substitution 
is scarcely thought of, and yet a very pleasing 
one is found in summer savory, which most 
people like better than sage, once its acquaint- 
ance is made. Coriander and caraway seeds are 



' Sweet, Pot and Medicinal Herbs 

used in bread, cake and cookies, but just a to.ich 
of caraway is a very piquant addition to salads. 
Tarragon is used for making tarragon vinegar 
— the leaves being steeped in pale cider or white 
wine vinegar until the flavor is extracted and 
then used in the concoction of salad dressing. 
Dill is used principally for making dill pickles, 
the leaves being laid alternately with the pickles 
when laid down. Sweet fennel is used for 
salads and soups and also for fish sauce. 

If one has a strip of land at one side of the 
garden that is not needed, and can be con- 
veniently skipped in the plowing, that will be the 
place for the herb bed. The soil should be rich 
and mellow and contain a fair proportion of 
humus. A poor strip of land may be built up 
by adding to it from season to season the old 
manure from the hotbed; this is nearly reduced 
to humus and the action of the elements will soon 
complete its transformation. 

As many of the herbs are perennial it is best 
that the bed should be a permanent one, not sub- 
ject to annual disturbance. It should be long, 

203 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

rather than wide, so that the herbs may be 
gathered without walking on the bed; three feet 
is a good width as that can be reached across 
fairly well. As the amount of any one herb used 
in the average family will be small it is not neces- 
sary that they be set in regular rows; they may 
rather be started in rows, for convenience in 
planting and identifying when up and then the 
fine, vigorous plants set in clumps in the border, 
or in colonies of sorts. The leaves of the various 
plants are the part used and they should be cut 
or gathered on a bright, clear day just as the 
plants are coming into bloom, tied in bunches 
and hung up in a dry place, an attic with open 
windows, or a shed, or spread out on racks or a 
floor, anywhere where they will dry quickly so 
as to retain all their flavor. When thoroughly 
dry the leaves should be stripped from the stems 
and packed in bags or boxes for use. 

The annual varieties are cultivated the same 
as the perennials but if one prefers these may oc- 
cupy a row through the garden where they can 
have the cultivation accorded the other vege- 

204 



Sweet, Pot and Medicinal Herbs 

tables. The following list is quite complete and 
will indicate the various uses for which each is 
suitable. 

PERENNIAL HERBS 

Balm. Lemon-scented and used for making 
balm tea. 

Catnip. Beloved of cats and useful in colic of 
infants. 

Fennel, Sweet. Used in salads and soups. 

HoreJiound. Very useful in coughs and bron- 
chial colds, made into syrup or candy, with 
sugar. 

Lavender. For perfuming linen. Not hardy 
and should be protected in winter. 

Mint. For mint sauces. 

Pennyroyal. Used medicinally, and for season- 
ing puddings and various dishes. 

Peppermint. For flavoring and in candy. 

Rosemary. For flavoring. ("Here's Rose- 
mary, that's for remembrance.") 

Rue. For roup in fowls and for medicinal pur- 
poses. 

205 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

Sage. Seasoning for sausage, poultry dressing 

and the like. 
Savory, summer. Used in place of sage and as 

flavoring with string beans. 
Savory, winter. Used the same as summer 

savory. 
Sweet Marjoram. Used green in summer and 

dried in winter. 
Tansy. For medicinal purposes. 
Thyme, hroad-leaved English. For seasoning 

and poultry stuffing; also a tea for nervous 

headache. 



ANNUAL HERBS 

Anise. For garnishing and flavoring and in 

making cordials. 
Basil, sweet. The stems and seeds are used in 

soups and sauces. 
Bene. Used medicinally — ^the leaves in water, 

beneficial in cases of dysentery. 
Borage. Excellent for bees. Leaves used in 

salads, the flowers in cooling drinks. 
206 



Sweet, Pot and Medicinal Herbs 

Caraway. The seed used in bread, cakes, cookies 
and salads. 

Chamomile. Medicinal. Prescribed by physi- 
cians as an emetic and vermifuge. 

Coriander. Seeds aromatic. Used as a stom- 
achic. 

Cumin. As food for pigeons. 

Dill. In making dill pickles. 

Pimpindla. The young leaves, used as salad, 
have the flavor of cucumbers. 

Saffron. Used for flavoring and coloring. 

Tarragon. For flavoring and in salads. Does 
not come from seed but plants must be pur- 
chased. 

Tagetes. This possesses in its green parts 
almost the true tarragon flavor. 

Thyme. French Summer. Used for season- 
ing. 

Waldmeister. Used in May wine and also for 
scenting clothes. 



207 



CHAPTER XIV 

PLANT ENEMIES AND INSECTICIDES 

THE well-tended garden does not suffer 
materially from inroads of insect pests 
especially in favorable seasons; cool, damp 
weather, and hot, muggy weather are conducive 
to fungoid diseases which sap the strength of the 
plants and make them less resistant to any kind 
of assaults, whether of insects or disease, but with 
normal weather and bright dry air a part of each 
day at least, little trouble should be experienced 
from insect pests; especially should this be the 
case if precautionary work has been done the 
previous fall in the way of gathering up and 
burning all rubbish that can harbor insects or 
disease and especially if the precaution is taken 
to fall plough the garden, leaving the soil in the 
rough furrow over winter. This is especially 
good practice when there has been trouble with 

208 



Plant Enemies and Insecticides 

insect pests, especially cutworms, root lice, 
tomato worms — the pupae of which winter in the 
ground and if turned up by the plough will be de- 
stroyed, radish and cabbage maggot and the like. 

Even though the past season has been practi- 
cally free from trouble of this sort the intelligent 
gardener will recognize the possibility of trouble 
and in time of peace will prepare for war by sup- 
plying himself with the more common and use- 
ful varieties of insecticides. It is not desirable 
that the list should include everything in the 
bug pharmacopseia ; a few standard remedies 
faithfully and intelHgently used are far better 
than an embarrassing assortment that leaves one 
undecided as to which is best and often results in 
half-hearted use of first one and then the other, 
with lax intervals which give the enemy time to 
recuperate and multiply. 

It is best in deciding upon the insecticides and 
fungicides to be used to have a clear classification 
in mind of the several kinds of insect to be 
exterminated as one form of poison may not be 
suited to all forms of insect hf e : for instance, in- 

209 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

sects which chew or eat the leaves of the plants 
to which they are addicted, as the potato beetle, 
caterpillar and the like, can most readily be de- 
stroyed by poison applied to the foliage; insects 
which do not eat the vegetation on the surface, 
but puncture it and drain away by suction the 
juices of the plant, like the aphis and other plant 
lice, will not be injured by surface poison, but 
must be destroyed by the contact of corrosive 
poison with their bodies, or with hot water, which 
is one of the best insecticides known, not only de- 
stroying all insect life with which it comes in con- 
tact, but cleansing and strengthening the plants. 
It should be used as a spray at about a hundred 
and forty degrees, taking pains to reach the 
underside of the leaves as well as the upper sur- 
face, and as it can be used when the fruit is in any 
stage of growth its advantage is obvious. 

For the eating or chewing insects and beetles 
there are several reliable poisons on the market, 
all ready for use, needing only to be mixed with a 
definite bulk of water, flour or lime, according as 
the poison is to be used as a dust or a spray. 

210 



Plant Enemies and Insecticides 

ARSENATE OF LEAD 

Used for all chewing insects that attack foliage 
and fruit trees; will not wash off nor burn the 
foliage. Use two or three pounds to fifty gal- 
lons of water as a spray. Price about forty-five 
cents a pound. 

ARSENATE OF ZINC 

A quick-acting adhesive insecticide for potato 
bugs, rose beetles and vegetables that have not 
headed sufficiently to be injurious if touched 
with the poison. Forty-five cents per pound. 

BUG DEATH 

Used instead of Paris green for eating insects 
on potatoes, squashes, melons, egg-plants, 
cucumbers. Twenty-five cents a pound; direc- 
tions accompany it. 

PARIS GREEN 

For all chewing insects. As a dust use one 
part of the poison to one hundred parts plaster, 
or flour; as a spray, one pound Paris green to 

911 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

one hundred and fifty to three hundred gallons 
of water according to the tenderness of the 
foHage. Sixty-five cents per pound. 

PYROX 

For eating insects, fungus growth, blight and 
rot. Adheres to foliage. One pound to six gal- 
lons of water. Forty cents per pound. 

SLUG SHOT 

For potato bugs, tomato and cabbage worms, 
lice aphis and worms — use as dust with blow gun. 
Twenty cents a pound. 

For fungoid diseases, blight and rot the various 
Bordeaux mixtures, single and combined with the 
arsenates so as to take the place of a separate 
poison for chewing insects, are suggested. 

BOEDEAUX MIXTURE 

The standard remedy against fungus, rust and 
rot. Five ounces to one gallon of water is 
standard strength. Spray at intervals until 
fruits sets, for potatoes till danger of late blight 
is passed. Thirty-five cents a pound. 

212 



Plant Enemies and Insecticides 

BORDEAUX-ARSENATE OF LEAD 

A combined fungicide and insecticide for pota- 
toes, melons, cucumbers and squash. Three 
ounces to one gallon of water. Spray once a 
week or every ten days. Forty cents per pound. 

KEROSENE EMULSION 

For all soft-bodied, sucking insects, especially 
aphis and lice. One pound of paste to ten gal- 
lons of water. Paste, thirty cents a pound. 

Directions for Preparing 
kerosene emulsion 
Dissolve one-half pound of soap in one gallon 
of boiling water, add two gallons of kerosene, 
and force through a spray pump again and again 
until an emulsion is formed. Dilute from ten 
to twenty-five times before applying. Use rain- 
water for making solution. 

BORDEAUX-ARSENATE OF LEAD 

One pound of arsenate of lead with fifty gal- 
lons of Bordeaux mixture for all eating insects 
and fungoid diseases. 

213 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

BORDEAUX MIXTURE 

Dissolve six pounds of copper sulphate by- 
hanging it in a bag of coarse cloth in an earthen 
or wooden vessel containing four to six gallons 
of water, and dilute with twenty-five gallons of 
water. Slake four pounds of lime, diluting to 
twenty-five gallons and mix by pouring the two 
solutions into a third vessel. This is of such uni- 
versal use that the large quantity will not be ex- 
cessive, especially when combined with the 
arsenical preparations. 

Vegetables and Insects and Diseases 
Attacking Them 

asparagus 
Keep the beds closely cut in spring and as soon 
as the shoots are allowed to grow spray with 
Bordeaux-ar senate of lead mixture. 

beans-anthracnose 
Spray with Bordeaux mixture when an inch 
or two high and repeat as necessary. 

214 



Plant Enemies and Insecticides 

BEAN BEETLE 

Spray with kerosene emulsion, being sure 
that it reaches every part of the under side of the 
leaves. 

BEAN WEEVIL 

Fumigate the seed before planting with car- 
bon-bisulphide, in a closed vessel for twenty- 
four hours or with formaldehyde, using one tea- 
spoonful to a pint of water and wetting the seed 
and covering close a few hours. 

FLEA BEETLE 

Spray with arsenate of lead or Bordeaux- 
arsenate mixture. 

BEET-LEAF SPOT 

Spray with Bordeaux mixture and repeat once 
in two weeks but the leaves must not be used for 
greens after spraying begins. 

CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER 

Aphis: spray with kerosene emulsion and re- 
peat as needful until the heads are nearly grown. 

215 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

CABBAGE WORM 

Spray with poisoned resin-lime mixture if the 
plants are young; after heads have formed use 
kerosene emulsion or hot water, preferably the 
latter. 

CABBAGE ROOT MAGGOT 

Protect the plants with disks of tar paper and 
wet the soil with Paris gi-een solution or emulsion 
composed of one pound of soap, one gallon of 
boiling water and one pint of crude carbolic acid 
diluted with forty parts of water, using sufficient 
to soak the soil several inches. 

CELERY BLIGHT 

Spray with Bordeaux mixture once in two 
weeks, until plants are half grown. 

CUCUMBERS 

For the striped beetle, use tobacco dust about 
the hills. Spray plants and ground with kero- 
sene emulsion. Wrap rags saturated with kero- 
sene about sticks and stick in center of hills to 
repel bugs with the odor. Better still, protect 

216 



Plant Enemies and Insecticides 

hills with frames of wire screening or mosquito 
netting. Spray with Bordeaux-arsenate of lead 
every two weeks. 

SQUASH BUG 

Hand pick the first bugs that appear and find 
and destroy all eggs. Dust with Bug Death. 
Protect with wire cloth. 

BLIGHT 

Leaves become spotted or covered with down. 
Spray every two weeks with Bordeaux mixture. 

ONIONS 

Blight. — Spray every ten days with two-thu'ds 
strength Bordeaux mixture. Boot lice. — Open 
trench along side the plants and apply salt freely. 

PEAS — APHIS 

Spray with kerosene emulsion until pods are 
filling; then spray with hot water. 

PEAS — MILDEW 

Spray with Bordeaux mixture containing 
resin wash to make it stick, or with Pyrox. 

217 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

POTATO — COLORADO BEETLE 

Hand pick to destroy eggs. If young ap- 
pear spray or dust with Paris green or Pyrox 
and repeat as often as necessary. 

FLEA BEETLE 

Keep plants well covered with Bordeaux mix- 
ture or Pyrox. 

SCAB 

Do not plant on freshly manured land, should 
be manured in fall or February at latest. Soak 
seed in formaldehyde before planting and dip 
each piece in sulphur. 

SQUASH BORER 

Slit infested stem and destroy worm and cover 
injured branch with earth or stone. 

SQUASH BUGS 

Use tobacco stems freely about hills. Spray 
with hot water very early in morning. 

TOMATO 

For leaf-blight. — Spray with Bordeaux mix- 
ture every ten days. 

218 



Plant Enemies and Insecticides 

TOMATO WORMS 

Pick worms, gather eggs and spray with Paris 
green or Pyrox. Do not use poison after the 
fruit is set. Fall-plough the tomato lot to rid 
the soil of the chrysalids of the worm. 

CAUTION 

In nearly all cases of surface infestation of 
plants, the insects can be destroyed with clear hot 
water, hot soapsuds of either whale oil soap or 
ivory soap or kerosene emulsion. and this should 
be the first resort, using poison solutions only 
when the former fail to give relief. 

Bordeaux mixture is so generally indicated for 
all diseases of foliage and kerosene for so large 
a number of insects that it pays to prepare these 
at home in the large quantities and have them 
always on hand. The kerosene sometimes "goes 
back" and needs to be forced with the pump into 
a fresh emulsion. 



219 



CHAPTER XV 

WINTER STORAGE 

IT is in the late days of fall that one begins 
to realize substantially on the summer's in- 
vestment of seed, time and labor in the garden. 
Previous to this one has watched the maturing 
of the summer vegetables with an eye to their 
immediate use; now one sees before one rich 
stores of food that shall tide one safely through 
many lean days when the price of food goes soar- 
ing and the Visible supply temporarily disap- 
pears. If one is putting into cellar storage an 
abundance of such sugar producing vegetables 
as beets, squashes, carrots, parsnips and the like 
one need not fear any injury to the health of the 
family from a lack of sugar if these are used 
freely, for they will convert themselves into the 
needed sweet and although they may not be quite 
so palatable as cake and candy will supply their 
place in the economy of the physical system. 

220 



Winter Storage 

M'ost winter vegetables need to be kept in cold 
storage, not in a warm, dry place ; for this reason 
a furnace-heated cellar is not satisfactory, but an 
adjoining room that is connected by a door that 
can be opened to admit warm air in a severe spell 
of winter weather is desirable. For certain roots 
that are not injured by a low temperature, or 
even slight freezing, an earth cellar is satisfac- 
tory. A cellar of this sort usually admits of 
pihng vegetables on the floor or in pens on the 
floor and throwing dirt over them to exclude the 
air and prevent evaporation, and as the vege- 
tables are used the surplus earth can be thrown 
out on the floor and the labor of storing is much 
lessened, for it is no small task to carry heavy 
baskets of earth into the vegetable cellar and to 
remove it again in the spring. If a small room 
can be arranged adjoining the cellar proper and 
bins divided off around the sides and the earth 
allowed to remain from year to year the task of 
winter storage will be slight. Beets, carrots, 
turnips, cabbage, parsnips, salsify, celery, all 
these things belong in the earth cellar and apples, 

221 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

too, may be stored in baskets, barrels or boxes 
here and will not be injured by light freezing, as 
it is heat and dry atmosphere that most militate 
against the successful keeping of winter apples. 

A few other vegetables call for dry, rather 
warm quarters, like the winter squash, onion, 
sweet and Irish potato, but good ventilation is 
indispensable for all. The chief merit of the root- 
cellar lies in the fact that it can be well ventilated, 
the windows being opened at times when it would 
be untenable to open them in rooms devoted to 
the storage of canned fruit and like perishable 
things. The windows in the vegetable cellar 
should not be permanently closed until severe 
winter weather, though they may be closed dur- 
ing storms and sharp falls of temperature. I 
have found that the losses from frost were less in 
direct proportion to the amount of fresh air ad- 
mitted and in some mild winters the windows 
have remained open the entire time, the cover- 
ing of earth being sufficient to preserve the vege- 
tables in excellent shape until spring. Even 
when such things as are usually stored in the 

222 



Winter Storage 

earth cellar are frozen stiff, they will be quite 
usable if thawed out in cold water. The water 
will draw the ice to the surface and it should be 
allowed to thaw, when the vegetables will be 
found entirely usable, but any vegetable that 
thaws out soft is beyond redemption and should 
at once be discarded. Also any vegetables found 
decaying in the cellar should at once be removed 
and the cause also removed. Usually it will be 
found that too much heat and too little fresh air 
are the trouble; opening a window will rectify 
both troubles. 

POTATOES 

Being our most important winter vegetables 
should be stored with great care. Practically 
their storage begins in the field when they are 
dug; they should be dug on a bright, dry day, 
preferably in the morning that the tubers should 
have time to dry off if at all damp, before being 
picked up and carried in. It will pay to sort in 
the field as they are gathered, throwing the culls 
— small potatoes and any that have been injured 

223 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

in digging — by themselves. These will be of 
value for feeding poultry, rabbits, goats and any 
stock on the place; they are excellent for horses, 
keeping the skin and coat in fine shape. Pota- 
toes may lie on the ground in the sun long enough 
to diy oif thoroughly, but not longer; left ex- 
posed to the hght they will turn green and this 
discoloration is poisonous. They should be 
turned over once so that the under side of the po- 
tatoes may dry equally. 

The best equipment for storing potatoes in the 
cellar consists of long bins divided into compart- 
ments that will hold from one to two bushels; 
these bins should have holes bored in the bottom 
for ventilation and they should be raised some- 
what from the floor. Never store potatoes di- 
rectly on the floor as this is the coldest part of the 
cellar and also the dampest; heat rises and cold 
falls so what heat there may be in the cellar will 
circulate beneath the bins and if, for any reason, 
it is necessary to supply artificial heat in the way 
of oil-stoves or lamps during a spell of zero 

224 



Winter Storage 

weather the heat can get under the potatoes and 
raise the temperature in the bottom of the bins as 
well as on the top. 

When the potatoes are in the bins they must 
be covered to exclude light and prevent their 
turning green. The potatoes should be exam- 
ined occasionally during winter to be sure that 
none are decaying or being affected by frost. As 
a general thing potatoes are not frosted if the 
skin crackles when the finger nail is pressed into 
it, but slight touches of frost sometimes do not 
affect the crispness of the skin but is shown by the 
potatoes becoming wet after tying for a while in 
a warm room, or by a sweetish taste when cooked. 
At that stage they are not injured for food but 
are less palatable and are liable to develop a queer 
fungus blight in the center. As spring ap- 
proaches the potatoes will begin gi'owth at the 
eyes-sprout, as it is called, and should be looked 
over and all growth rubbed off. This will prob- 
ably have to be done more than once as the season 
advances. 

225 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

SWEET POTATOES 

Are far more difficult to carry through the 
winter than the Irish potatoes. They require 
more warmth and a dryer atmosphere, and should 
be stored in boxes of dry sand and set on some 
support away from the floor. The furnace 
cellar, if not too warm is the best place for them 
and it is well to use them freely so as to lessen the 
loss from decay as much as possible. 

WINTER ONIONS 

Should be stored in a dry place, a little above 
freezing". Slight frost does not injure onions, 
but repeated freezing and thawing does, while 
too much heat will start them to growing. An 
upstairs room that receives sufficient heat to 
keep it from freezing will do nicely and it is a 
good plan to use the best onions first so that those 
which are unfit for use towards spring will not 
be so much of a loss; however, as these onions 
make the very best of green onions they are by 
no means a total loss, but the small and inferior 
ones will do quite as well for this purpose, for it 

226 



Winter Storage 

is the live germ only that is important, all the 
onion body is formed anew. Where there is a 
hanging shelf in a cellar that is dry and warm 
the onions can often be wintered there success- 
fully. 

WINTER SQUASH 

Require a rather warm and dry situation; the 
cellar rarely affords the right conditions for win- 
tering them successfully. An upstairs room or 
garret where a chimney passes through is often 
just the thing for them as they may be piled in a 
heap near the chimney, with layers of excelsior 
or straw between, and protected with blankets or 
quilts and so pass the winter in good condition. 
From such a storage I have taken perfectly 
sound, dry Hubbards in mid-June and March 
squash are by no means a rarity. 

BEETS 

May be dug any time before the ground 
freezes up; the shorter time any vegetable has 
to remain in cold storage the better for it, so 
if not brought in until about Thanksgiving the 

227 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

delay is all to the good. If the beets are to be 
stored in a root cellar covered with earth it is not 
material whether they are topped or not. I have 
sometimes thought that they kept rather better if 
the tops were allowed to remain; certainly there 
is, then, no loss from bleeding, and if piled in 
heaps with the tops all one way overlapping each 
other, but the tops free, it is far easier to find and 
remove them when wanted. Slight freezing does 
not injure beets if thawed out in cold water, but 
severe freezing does, so that sufficient earth should 
be used to cover them and the earth may be pro- 
tected with blankets if necessary. If no root 
cellar is available the beets should be topped and 
packed with earth in bins or boxes in the vegetable 
cellar. If necessary to store in furnace cellar 
place as far from the furnace as possible. Where 
no other place for storage is available running a 
partition across one end or corner of the cellar 
will provide a place that will keep most vegetables 
in good shape and the expense will be covered 
by the saving in stock. The various wall boards 
advertised are excellent material with which to 

^28 



Winter Storage 

construct these Kttle storage places and any handy 
man, or woman, for that matter, can put up some- 
thing that will answer the purpose by the aid of 
a hammer and saw, a sheet or two of board and 
a few pieces of two-by-four to nail to. 

CABBAGE 

Are best stored in the root cellar, they may be 
pulled and stood up in the corner of the cellar 
and the roots buried in somewhat damp earth or 
they may be cut, the roughest leaves trimmed 
and the heads buried in earth, setting them upside 
down so that the earth will not work inside the 
leaves ; handled in this way they should come out 
sound and good in spring. Wrapping in news- 
papers, where the supply is limited is sometimes 
successful, the main thing being to protect from 
the air and too great cold and to prevent the 
spread of decay which may attack individual 
heads. 

CAULIFLOWER 

May be pulled at the approach of severe 
weather, the lower leaves removed and the plants 

229 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

put root down, buried in soil, in boxes or pens in 
the root cellar and will be available for some time, 
but do not keep through the winter like cab- 
bage. 

CELERY 

Should be dug, with the roots intact and placed 
roots down in boxes of wet soil or sand in the 
dark cellar, packing the plants close together to 
exclude air. If the cellar is necessarily light, 
the plants should be shaded or a corner of the 
cellar may be enclosed to afford protection from 
light. A movable partition made from wall 
board is a very handy thing to have in the root 
cellar as it makes possible the providing of special 
conditions as needed. 

PARSNIPS 

Although parsnips are better for remaining in 
the ground until spring a supply for winter use 
should be dug in the fall, topped and buried in 
boxes of sand or earth in the cellar. This may 
be done in either the root or the kitchen cellar, 

230 



Winter Storage 

as freezing does not injure the parsnip providing 
they thaw out in the ground or in water. 

SALSIFY 

Requires the same treatment as parsnips — leav- 
ing the main crop in the ground until spring but 
bringing in a supply for winter use. The main 
thing in the storing of all root vegetables is to 
prevent wilting more than freezing. Vegetables 
stored under any conditions, without the pro- 
tective covering of earth to exclude air, soon be- 
come soft and wilted and unfit for food. 

TURNIPS 

Are especially sensitive to a dry atmosphere 
and must always be buried in sand or earth if 
they are to retain their crispness and flavor. 
They should not be dug until a touch of frost has 
sweetened them, then they should be topped, re- 
serving the tops for the pig or rabbits and the 
roots stored as directed. 



231 



CHAPTER XVI 

CANNING THE GARDEN SURPLUS FOR 
WINTER USE 

THE fullest measure of benefit from the gar- 
den has not been obtained unless one has 
preserved for future use the more succulent forms 
of vegetables that are not susceptible to preser- 
vation through winter in the usual form of cold 
storage. 

Those early vegetables which are so keen an 
incentive to the planting of a garden — young 
beets, spinach greens, string beans, limas, peas, to- 
matoes and the like must be preserved in a cooked 
form, hermetically sealed from the air to preserve 
them from spoiling. This the commercial can- 
ners have done for years and we have been con- 
tent to let them do this work for us at a price that 
has added materially to the high cost of living, 
while our own garden product, often of a far 
better quality, has gone to waste. Market gar- 

232 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

deners who supply the canneries grow vegetables 
with a keen eye to their productiveness. If one 
vegetable will produce a half or a third more to 
an acre than another variety somewhat better, it 
is only human to grow that one, but the private 
garden is not, as a rule, grown with a sole idea 
of profit; it is quality and the enjoyment of the 
product that is looked for and only those veg- 
etables that will produce a high grade product 
will be grown. 

The home canning of vegetables has been neg- 
lected owing to the uncertainty of results. Oc- 
casionally one found a housekeeper who could 
can corn successfully, but the results usually were 
unsatisfactory, all this, however, is changed since 
the government experts of the Agricultural De- 
partment have, by careful experiments along the 
lines of all sorts of vegetable products, worked 
out canning schedules that only require careful 
following to insure success. 

The government bulletins give explicit instruc- 
tions as to necessary equipment, method of 
handling each separate vegetable and try, in all 

233 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

possible ways, to insure success for the worker. 
At first glance the amount of equipment seems 
burdensome and some of the requirements un- 
necessary, but I have found that it is not safe to 
slight any one of them, but that there are short 
cuts in the work that materially lessen the labor. 
It will not always be convenient to supply oneself 
with a canning outfit involving much expense; 
especially will this be the case in the small family 
where only a moderate amount of canning is to be 
done, though the regular canning outfits greatly 
simplify and ease up the work. A home-made 
outfit will, however, take care of all the surplus 
from the small home garden, especially where 
there are but two or three cans to be handled at 
one time. There are always vegetables that ma- 
ture their fruits sparingly — too many for imme- 
diate use, but not enough to sell. However, in 
order that the vines or plants should continue to 
bear heavily, all such products as string and lima 
beans, tomatoes, green corn and the like should 
be gathered as each reaches its most perfect stage. 
This often involves some waste unless it can be 

234. 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

utilized in some way and here is where the canning 
is effective, as the continual canning of only one 
or two cans at a time results in the course of a 
summer in a well-filled cupboard that will insure 
one against any serious food shortage that may 
arise during the winter. 

There are five types of canning outfits : Home- 
made outfits, constructed of such utensils as wash 
boilers, tin pails, milk cans, metal wash tubs and 
lard pails. The lard pails are especially usable 
and cream pails are excellent where only a few 
cans are to be processed at once ; even a teakettle 
can be made to do duty where only one or two 
pint cans are to be eooked. Any metal vessel 
that will allow the water to come at least an inch 
above the tops of the cans will do. 

Hot-Water -Bath Commercial Outfits are con- 
structed usually for outdoor work, with a steril- 
izing vat, lifting-trays, firebox, and smokepipe, 
combined in one piece. They are light and con- 
venient. They may be moved about as desired, 
even carried to the orchard or garden where ap- 
ples and corn are to be canned in quantity, but 

S35 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

are more adapted to clubs and neighborhood co- 
operative work than to the needs of a small 
family. 

Water-Seal Outfits consist of a double- 
walled bath and cover which projects down into 
the water between the outer and inner walls, 
thus making three metal walls and two water- 
jackets between the sterilizing vat and the out- 
side of the canner. A high temperature can be 
maintained more uniformly than with the hot- 
water-bath outfit, since the escape of steam is pre- 
vented and a slight steam pressure is maintained. 

Steam-Pressure Outfits are made to carry from 
five to thirty pounds' pressure and are equipped 
with steam-tight sterilizer, lifting crate, ther- 
mometer, or pressure gauge, safety valve and 
steam petcock ; they are, of course, the most per- 
fect equipment and economical of labor and fuel. 

Aluminum Pressure Cookers are combination 
outfits for cooking and canning and have the ad- 
vantage of being useful all the year around. 
They are light in construction, economical of heat 
and will carry as high as thirty pounds steam 

236 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

pressure; they are equipped the same as steam- 
pressure outfits. 

The purpose of this chapter, however, is not to 
go into the methods necessary for caring for large 
quantities of vegetables at one time nor the ex- 
penditure of any considerable sum in effecting 
the conservation of garden food; rather it is in- 
tended to help the housewife to save, cheaply and 
easily, her garden surplus as it accumulates day 
by day. Fuller details than are in the scope of 
this chapter can be gained through the canning 
and food preservation bulletins sent out by the 
Department of Agriculture at Washington and 
by the various states. 

The same general principles pertain to all 
fruits and vegetables to be canned, only the time 
of processing varying in individual cases. 

The vegetables to be canned should always be 
perfect of their kind and absolutely fresh ; indeed, 
it is better to have everything ready for canning 
before they are gathered, then dress, sterilize and 
blanch and get into the cans as rapidly as possible. 
The Cold Pack Process calls for, first, the steril- 

237 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

izing of the product by plunging for five or six 
minutes in boiling water. This is best accom- 
plished by either a wire basket, lined with cheese- 
cloth, if the vegetable is small, like peas or string 
beans, or alone for such things as tomatoes, pep- 
pers or corn on cob, or by a large piece of cheese- 
cloth a yard square at least. After blanching 
the vegetables must be plunged at once in cold 
water, to set the color and firm the surface. They 
are then packed at once in the cans, a teaspoon 
of salt added to each quart and the can filled with 
boiling water, rubber and top put in place, but 
not screwed tight, and the cans placed in the con- 
tainer, the water of which must come at least an 
inch above the top of the cans, and cooked, or 
processed, for the time indicated for each product. 
Before using the cans they should be sterihzed 
b}^ boihng, or at least thoroughly heating to ob- 
viate danger of cracking when plunged into the 
hot container. 

The government directions state quite emphat- 
ically that the cans should be boiled but after 
putting up several hundred cans of vegetables of 

238 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

all sorts, without this precaution, all of which kept 
perfectly, I have come to the conclusion that it 
cuts out a lot of unnecessary time and equipment, 
for the necessity of having one large container to 
sterihze cans, another to sterilize the vegetables, 
a kettle of boiling water to fill up the cans, and 
the container for processing, entails a large 
amount of working space and an unnecessary 
amount of fuel. If any short cuts can be 
achieved it is certainly that much to the good, so 
I have been able to shorten the work so that much 
of my own canning has been done on a one-burner 
oil stove with one vessel of boiling water for 
processing, blanching, sterilizing jars, etc., and 
one pail of cold water for blanching and a good, 
big table for handling the vegetables. In han- 
dling the work I have everything ready before 
gathering the vegetables. For a few pint or 
quart cans I use a cream-pail which will hold four 
pints or three quarts. In this I have boiling 
plenty of water. I place the cans in a pan add- 
ing a little hot water, turning them carefully un- 
til warm through and then fill up and cover. Put 

239 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

the vegetables in the wire basket or cheese-cloth, 
dip them in the boiling water the specified time, 
plunge into cold water for an instant, take out 
cans, one at a time, being careful not to touch the 
tops with the hands, place rubbers, first dipped 
in the hot water, fill cans with vegetables, with a 
teaspoon of salt for the quart size, half a tea- 
spoonful for pints, fill with the boiling water 
from the container, place caps — which have also 
been sterilized — on, screw down, but not tight and 
place in container, being sure that there is abun- 
dance of water, for the long cooking lowers the 
water materially and unless there is another kettle 
of boiling water available for filling up the water 
may go below the top of the can and the result 
will be blown out rubbers which will have to be 
replaced. This is one of the serious handicaps 
of canning by the cold-pack method. The rem- 
edy, however, is simple. Remove the can, remove 
the cap and put a fresh rubber in place, replace 
the cap and plunge again in the container and 
boil for five minutes longer. The changing of the 
rubber should be done as quickly as possible and 

^40 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

care should be taken to avoid touching the edge 
of the top of the can or the inside of the cap 
while doing so. If there is any delay in replacing 
the rubber it will be better to boil ten instead of 
five minutes. 

When the canning is done on the kitchen range 
or on a three-burner gas or oil stove it will be 
better to fill the cans with water from the tea- 
kettle and to sterilize the cans in a dishpan, allow- 
ing them to heat on the stove until required, but 
excellent results will follow the shorter method. 
Pint cans are most desirable for such vegetables 
as string beans, peas, lima beans and the like — 
things which are used alone and not combined 
with other foods as tomatoes and corn. Pint 
cans, however, have about disappeared from the 
market and even quarts have been at a premium. 
And one should take unusual care in cleansing 
cans and tops as soon as emptied, and placing 
them in a dry place until wanted for another 
year's canning. A cellar is not a suitable place 
to store cans, it is far too damp and conducive 
to mould. If cans are properly cleansed and 

241 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

dried and the tops adjusted and stored in a dry- 
upstairs closet they will need far less sterihzing 
when required for use. 

Often in canning vegetables it will be found 
that there is an uneven quantity — that is, there 
will be a quantity of one kind left after filling the 
cans, but not enough for another full can ; if de- 
sired this can be put in a can and cooked with the 
rest for the family dinner, or it may be put away 
with the canned goods, for I have found the par- 
tially filled cans keep quite as well as the full ones 
and there are often times when the lesser quantity 
will be all that is needed for the meal, or it may 
be just enough for a salad or to combine with 
some other vegetable in a soup or entree. 

In placing the cans in the container there must 
always be a rack of some sort to keep the cans 
from direct contact with the bottom of the vessel. 
This should, if possible, be in the form of a wire 
rack. The wire trivets to set hot dishes on, 
which may be obtained at the ten cent counter of 
any department store, are excellent for use in 
cream cans; they just fill the bottom and as 

242 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

they rest on little half -inch feet they allow the 
water to circulate freely beneath the cans, which is 
very important and failure to provide for which 
is sometimes a cause of blown out rubbers. For 
canning with large cans — quarts and two quarts 
— the twenty-five pound lard-cans are excellent. 
They are tall enough to insure plenty of water 
over the top of the cans and will accommodate 
four or five two quart and five or six one quart cans 
and seven pints, though some recommend placing 
two tiers of pints in the container, but I have 
always thought that rather risky. The lard-cans 
are very light to handle and the hds fit closely, 
retaining the steam. Whenever there is an im- 
perfect closing of the lid it will be well to place 
a towel over the top of the can before adjusting 
the lid to insure the retention of the steam. If 
this is done the water will not evaporate so 
rapidly. 

The following schedule of time for processing 
vegetables is that suggested by the Department of 
Agriculture and is authoritative. In every in- 
stance the time for processing must be counted 

^43 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

from the time the water commences to boil after 
the cans are put in the container, and the boiHng 
must be continuous. 

CANNING DIRECTIONS FOR VEGETABLES 

Asparagus — The green grasses grown in the 
home garden do not, as a rule, can well. They 
are too tender and delicate and break down under 
the long cooking suggested. It might be well to 
experiment with this, cooking only a short time 
and if the asparagus keeps two weeks or more, 
open a can and test the flavor and if found ac- 
ceptable more can be canned. It requires the 
tough white asparagus like the Bonvillet or Ar- 
genteuil for canning and those are the kinds used 
in commercial canning. Possibly if the green 
grasses were cut below the ground as is done with 
the French grasses it would stand up better under 
cooking. The directions follov/. 

Asparagus — Gather and clean at once, scrap- 
ing off the scales on the sides, and cut to equal 
length. It takes about three bunches for a pint 
can as they shrink in blanching. Blanch five 

;344 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

minutes, plunge at once in cold water. Pack in 
cans, sliding the stalks in carefully, butts down, 
fill with hot water, add one teaspoonful of salt to 
a quart, place rubber and cap in position but do 
not screw down tight. Place in container as 
fast as filled and boil 90 minutes. Remove 
and stand can on cap to cool. 

Beets — Select young beets about an inch and 
a quarter in diameter as the small beets retain 
their color better than larger ones. About an 
inch of the top may be left on. -Wash very care- 
fully but do not break the skin or remove the 
tap-root. Blanch four to five minutes, plunge at 
once in cold water. Remove skins by slipping 
them off with the hand, avoid the use of knife if 
possible and pack at once in cans. Fill with 
hot water adding one teaspoonful of salt to the 
can and place rubber and cap in place, place in 
container and boil 90 minutes. 

Beans, String — String or hull, blanch in hot 
water from five to ten minutes, or cut in half inch 
lengths and steam for five minutes — for small 
quantities a wire flour sieve over a tea kettle will 

M5 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

answer admirably — dip quickly in cold water, 
pack in cans. Fill with hot water, adding one 
teaspoonful of salt to the quart. Place rubbers 
and caps in position, cook for 120 minutes, remove 
and invert to cool and test the joint. 

Beans, Lima — Shell and plunge in boihng 
water for five to ten minutes, plunge immediately 
in cold water. Pack at once in cans, handling 
very carefully. Put rubbers and cap in position 
but not tight. Place in container and cook 180 
minutes. 

Cauliflower — Lay the heads in salted water 
half an hour to free from any insects that may 
have lodgment in the head. Break the head 
into convenient sized pieces and blanch in boiling 
water five minutes, plunge at once into cold 
water, pack in cans, fill with boiling water, add 
one teaspoonful of salt to the quart and place 
rubber and cap in position but not tight, place in 
container and cook 60 minutes. This is the gov- 
ernment time but I have found it overcooks the 
cauliflower. 

Corn — This seems to give home canners more 
246 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

trouble than any other vegetable. This is prob- 
ably caused by delay in the operation. The 
canning of corn involves more labor than any 
other vegetable and it is difficult for one person 
alone to handle it successfully. Two working 
together, one cutting the corn from the ear and 
the other packing it in the can, will insure a better 
result. The corn to be canned should be of the 
sweetest variety — Golden Bantam or Bantam 
Evergreen being excellent sorts. It should be 
picked at just the right stage — rbetween the milk 
and the dough stage, or when the milk that flows 
when the grain is broken with the thumb nail 
looks milky and not watery. It is better to do 
one can at a time, blanching and dipping in cold 
water and packing the corn in the can, allowing 
a half inch at the top for the swelling of the corn, 
adding a teaspoonful of sugar and one of salt 
for every quart and filling with hot water, capping 
and placing in the container before going on with 
the next canful. The first can put in will not 
Toe injured by the extra cooking. Waterlogged 
or soaked corn is an indication of slowness in 

247 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

packing. If it is desired to can corn on the ear, 
blanch, plunge into cold water and pack at once 
in cans large enough to hold several ears. The 
two quart economy jars are excellent for canning 
corn on the ears. Whole corn is a little difficult 
to pack economically, but it can be packed closely 
if the jar is laid on the side when packing and 
the corn slid in, the first row being put in butt 
down and the second tip down. Add a table- 
spoonful of sugar to each quart can and do not 
fill more than one-third full with boiling water. 
When the can is filled with water the flavor of 
the corn is impaired, and it is more or less water- 
soaked. The big Stoweil's Evergreen Corn is 
beautiful when canned whole; indeed so fine is 
its appearance that it is almost worth while to 
can it just for its appearance on the shelves of 
the fruit cupboard. Dipping the tops of the cans 
in paraffin aids in preserving the contents. 
When heating for use in winter, place in oven 
instead of hot water as this will render it more 
dry. 

Ohra — Gather the pods while still tender, wipe 
24«8 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

clean, plunge into boiling water five minutes, 
plunge immediately in cold water, remove and 
cut into half -inch rings. Pack in can, adding one 
teaspoonful of salt to the quart. Fill with boil- 
ing water, place rubber and cap in position, 
tighten and put at once in container and cook 
120 minutes. Remove, tighten cap and reverse 
to cool and test seal. 

Peas — Should always be freshly gathered, 
shell and steam over boiling water for ten min- 
utes, blanch and pack at once into cans, adding 
one teaspoon of salt and one of sugar to each 
quart. Put rubber and cap in position, but do 
not tighten. Place in container and sterilize 180 
minutes. Peas should be very carefully handled. 
A cloudy appearance of the water is an indication 
of rough handling or broken peas. 

Tomatoes — Scald until skin loosens sufficiently 
to remove easily, cold dip, empt^^ the seed cav- 
ities and cut in small pieces. Pack at once in 
cans, pressing the tomato down full. Add one 
teaspoonful of salt to the quart but no water. 
Place rubber and cap and put in container and 

249 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

cook 22 minutes. Remove, reverse to cool and test 
seal. Tomatoes cooked in the open-pan method 
so long customary are so satisfactory that it is 
scarcely worth while to change the method, unless 
one finds the cold-pack way more convenient and 
agreeable. If preferred tomatoes may be canned 
whole or simply cut in two and the seed cavities 
emptied. Smaller or broken tomatoes may be 
cooked and passed through a sieve to remove the 
seeds and the puree thus formed used to fill in 
between the slices in the can; this makes a very 
fine product. 

It is not advisable to can vegetables that can 
be stored successfully in cellar or store rooms ; 
such products should not deplete the already 
scanty store of cans; but in the case of people 
living in flats or apartments where there are no 
storage facilities squash and pumpkins for pies 
may be utilized in this way to advantage. 

Squash and Pumpkins — Prepare and cut into 
convenient sections, blanch three minutes, cold 
dip. Pack closely in hot jars or cans. Fill with 
boiling water, add teaspoonful of salt to each 

250 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

quart. Put rubbers and caps of jars into position 
but do not tighten. Put in container and ster- 
ilize 120 minutes. Remove, tighten caps and re- 
verse to cool and test seal.^ 

Soups — Odds and ends of vegetables that occur 
during the summer may be utilized for vegetable 
soups. It often happens that tomatoes are 
picked by the chickens so that they are unsalable, 
but otherwise sound, or they may be spotted in 
a way that does not preclude the use of the un- 
injured portion; such tomatoes. may be used for 
canning if the injured portion is carefully re- 
moved. Okra that is getting too large to be 
left ungathered, a few string or lima beans, car- 
rots that are crowded — anything in the vegetable 
line that lends itself to the concoction of a pal- 
atable soup may be utilized and so make the gar- 
den just that much more remunerative. If pos- 
sible the amount of tomato should nearly or quite 
equal that of the other vegetables combined. 

1 Or — cut in large pieces and steam or bake until soft, remove 
from shell and mash smooth. Fill cans, pressing down evenly 
with a wooden spoon or potato masher, place rubber and caps 
and plunge in container for one hour. 

251 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

The tomatoes should be scalded, cold dipped, the 
seed cavities emptied and the pulp cooked until it 
will pass through a wire sieve to free it from the 
seeds. The other vegetables should be blanched, 
plunged into cold water and put through the meat 
chopper and added to the tomato and the cans 
filled, but no water added, the juice of the vege- 
tables, and especially of the tomato, being suffi- 
cient. The following combination makes an ex- 
cellent soup : When the cans are opened for use 
in winter beef stock to give the proper consist- 
ency should be added, or one bouillon cube to 
each portion to be served and sufficient water 
may be substituted or a cream soup may be pre- 
pared by using milk and adding rolled crackers. 
Vegetable Soup — !/> bushel tomatoes, three 
stalks of celery or one teaspoonf ul of celery seed, 
one head cabbage, six carrots, three turnips, six 
ears corn cut down through each row of kernels 
and the kernels sliced off the ear, i/o peck string 
beans, two quarts shelled lima beans, one dozen 
onions, three red peppers, six salsify roots, one 

252 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

pint of okra pods (sliced) one cup salt, one table- 
spoon black pepper. 

Prepare tomatoes as suggested above, cut all 
the other vegetables fine and add to the tomatoes. 
Separate into two parts. To one part add one 
cup* of rice, cooked till tender, to the remainder 
an equal amount of cooked barley. Fill in cans 
and process two hours. Soups can scarcely be 
cooked too much, as unless the vegetables are 
thoroughly softened the product is unsatisfactory. 
The cabbage and turnips may be omitted if their 
flavor is not liked. 

The government bulletins give a number of 
formulas for soups and camp rations which are 
worth considering when conserving one's gar- 
den supphes, if one akeady has cans and tops. 
(The pint cans are best as the soup is in solid 
form and a pint is sufficient for a family, when 
reduced with broth, water or milk. ) The cost of 
the soup per can will not exceed two or three cents 
as against ten for the much smaller cans pur- 
chased at the gi-ocery. 

253 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

Sweet Corn Dried — As corn is more trouble 
to can than any of the other vegetables and more 
uncertain in its results, many housekeepers prefer 
to dry it, and a way that is very highly rec- 
ommended is as follows: The corn is gathered 
when still in the milk stage, somewhat younger 
than for canning. It is necessary for two to 
handle the product as it must all be finished in 
one operation — that is, it is a one-day job, and 
a rather strenuous and busy one, too. As in 
canning, the corn is blanched, plunged in cold 
water, the grains scored through the center and 
sliced from the cob, care being given that no part 
of the cob is included. It is then placed on plates 
or tins with a small amount of butter or butter 
substitute added — just enough to prevent the corn 
sticking to the plates — and placed in the oven 
and on top of the stove to dry. It must be stirred 
almost continuously to prevent burning or stick- 
ing. Only as much corn must be prepared at one 
time as can be accommodated on the stove or in 
the oven and one person must prepare and cut the 
corn while the other stirs and dries it. The dry 

254i 



Canning the Garden Surplus 

corn is then stored in paper bags or paper car- 
tons until wanted, and is said to be a very de- 
licious product, much better hked than canned 
corn. 

Bulletins for Drying Fruit and Vegetables are 
sent out by the Department of Agricultm-e on re- 
quest and should be very helpful to the house- 
wife. 



255 



CHAPTER XVII 

FALL WORK IN THE GARDEN 

IF the garden has been well tended during the 
growing season there will not be much rub- 
bish to clear away and the absence of weeds will 
make the harvesting of the winter vegetables a 
pleasure. A bright, sunny day is best for dig- 
ging all root vegetables, especially potatoes 
which should be allowed to lie on the ground until 
dry enough for the dirt to shake off, leaving the 
tubers clean and sightly. 

After frost has killed the vegetables so that no 
further good will be derived from them they 
should be pulled and piled in a heap to dry and 
be burned; especially is this desirable if they have 
been infested with any disease or insects during 
summer, but if free from any harmful conditions 
they should, preferably, be put on the compost 
heap to add fertility to the coming season's gar- 
den. 

256 



Fall Work in the Garden 

Wire trellises, poles and wires used for the 
training of peas, tomatoes, cucumbers and the 
like should now be removed and stored away for 
next year. All boxes, boards or sash that can 
harbor insects or the chrysalids of cabbage or 
other worms, should be raised, cleaned and re- 
moved. 

The winter treatment of the garden will de- 
pend upon conditions that have existed during 
summer. If the garden has been free from in- 
sects and disease it will have been a good plan to 
sow the entire area to rye for a cover crop 
during winter, to be turned under for green 
manure in the spring. This protects the ground 
from leaching during winter, especially if the 
winter should be open, and adds materially to 
the fertility of the soil, but if there has been 
trouble with insects and disease it will be better 
to fall-plough, leaving the ground in furrows so 
that as many as possible of the chrysalids and 
larvae of the various plant enemies may be de- 
stroyed. 

If onion seed has been sown in August for 
257 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

early spring onions it will be well to give the beds 
a covering of straw or marsh hay at the approach 
of cold weather. The rhubarb rows may be 
banked with coarse manure from the barnyard 
and the asparagus bed may have the tops removed 
and the roots protected with manure; this will 
hasten the production of shoots in the spring and 
make stronger roots. 

If there is a bit of land available for early peas 
it may be ploughed and the furrows filled with 
well-rotted manure, each furrow turned over the 
manure in the next and the rows marked with 
sticks ; in early spring, drills may be opened with 
the hand cultivators and the seed for the very 
earliest peas sown. 

If the lettuce, carrots, beets, salsify, endive, 
spinach, parsnips and radishes have proved satis- 
factory and any of the annual varieties have been 
allowed to go to seed it will be wise to save the seed 
for the coming season as the increasing shortage of 
seeds makes it more or less problematical whether 
a supply may be forthcoming another season. 

258 



Fall Work in the Garden 

Lettuce, endive, spinach, Swiss chard, Chinese 
cabbage, and radishes seed freely the first year, 
beets, carrots, salsify, parsnips and turnips the 
second year and the mature vegetables must be 
planted in the spring to produce seed. If there 
are good roots of carrots and beets, these may be 
stored in sand in the cellar and planted out in 
the spring when they will bloom and produce 
seed. The parsnips and salsify left in the ground 
may be dug in the spring and reset where they 
are to bloom and a few plants will give sufficient 
seed for the home garden. The seed from the 
best tomatoes should have been saved, a few 
melons, cucumbers and egg-plants allowed to 
ripen and the finest of the red peppers saved for 
seed. The sweetest and driest of the winter 
squash should have its seed set aside for the 
coming year. Even should there prove to be 
an abundance of seed this saving will do no 
harm ; the raising of seed of biennial vegetables is 
interesting and should there be a real scarcity 
of seed one will be very thankful of the fore- 

259 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

thought which makes the shortage innocuous as 
far as one's own garden is concerned and, besides, 
one may do one's httle bit by supplying friends 
and neighbors. 



260 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE ANNUAL GARDEN 

FOR the busy woman who has but a modicum 
of time to spare for the growing of flowers, 
but is loath to relinquish entirely their cheerful 
presence about the grounds and house, the annual 
garden with its wide diversity of color, season and 
charm affords the greatest possible returns for 
the outlay required. A few packets of seed, most 
of which may be purchased for from five to ten 
cents, will lay the foundation for sheets and 
sheets of bloom and the labor of planting and 
caring for them will be less than is required for 
perennials. 

One great advantage in growing annuals is 
that the beds may be freshly prepared each 
spring, there is nothing in the way to retard spad- 
ing — no perennial growths to be carefully worked 
around, that the roots may not be injured or the 
new growth, not yet above ground, be destroyed. 

261 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

It is all straight ahead work, and the first early 
crop of weeds is completely eliminated, grass 
eradicated and all is in order for the reception of 
the plants which may have been started in flats 
in the house or in a hotbed or cold frame or, in the 
case of such annuals as do not take kindly to 
transplanting, in the open ground. 

Nor is it necessary in the case of annuals that 
there should be a regular, formally laid out gar- 
den or permanent beds. A border about the 
base of the house along the fence or walks, will 
give room for several kinds of flowers, flowers 
that will be a mass of bloom from early summer 
until late frost. 

A very satisfactory place for annuals I have 
found is down through the vegetable garden. I 
like their company while I am at work among the 
useful but less ornamental vegetables, so always 
plan to have a row of something mid-way of the 
garden; usually the row takes the form of tea 
roses which never do so well for me as in this 
homely situation. The culture is more thorough 
than can be given to plants in beds, there is less 

262 



The Annual Garden 

crowding, hence fewer insect pests and I always 
plan to have the adjacent vegetables of as orna- 
mental a character as possible ; a fine row of mossy 
parsley on one side, feathery carrots on the op- 
posite row gives a charming background of green. 
Lettuce, beets, parsnips, any of the pleasantly 
leaved greens are attractive companion rows and 
although the rose is the aristocrat of the gar- 
den, objecting decidedly to sharing her bed with 
less royal plants I have never found that she ob- 
jects to their presence when they keep to their 
own allotted row. 

This long row through the garden is an ex- 
cellent place to start seeds of hardy perennials 
for transplanting into permanent beds the fol- 
lowing year, but only for this preliminary growth, 
for the annual plowing makes their permanent 
tenancy impracticable, but bedding plants such as 
dahlias, gladioli, tigridias and the like will be 
at their best here and in their summer culture 
have all the characteristics of annuals. 

For early blooming it is always worth while 
to sow the seeds of annuals early in the spring in 

263 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

flats in the house or in a hotbed or cold frame. 
Usually one can spare room in the hotbed for a 
few plats of seeds and these should be sown at 
the same time the seeds of the vegetables are sown, 
sowing each separate variety in little plats by 
itself, separating the plats from each other by 
narrow strips of wood pressed into the ground, 
and labelling each plat with the names of seed, 
date of sowing and, if known, the length of time 
it takes for the seed to germinate. Annuals, 
however, germinate more rapidly than perennials, 
many appearing above ground in from three to 
five days after sowing, though a few, like the 
Arctotis Grandis, nicotianas and ricinus, may 
take from ten to fifteen days. This is where the 
forethought of labelling the seed plats with date 
of sowing and period of germination is of prac- 
tical value — it prevents undue impatience and 
discouragement when the plants fail to appear 
as soon as we expect them to; but with a mixed 
planting of seeds of varying characteristics, there 
will always be early comers to encourage one and 

264 



The Annual Garden 

keep alive faith in the ultimate appearance of the 
least and last. 

Any considerable planting of annuals should 
include those that will give a long season of bloom 
for scenic effect, those that will be especially de- 
sirable for cut flowers and above all those special 
flowers which most appeal to our sentiment and 
are dear to us through associations or suggestions. 

For mass planting about the base of buildings 
or in front of shrubbery there are few plants more 
effective than the celosias, especially the varieties 
known as prince's feather; many of the varieties 
in red and yellow effects are very good and they 
seem to stand the heat and drought and even the 
early frosts remarkably well. Usually a spray 
of the plumey blooms is a whole bouquet in itself. 
If cut before killing frosts and brought into the 
house they will retain their freshness for a long 
time, and potted make excellent fall and early 
winter plants. 

The argemone or prickly poppy is a little 
known plant of rather recent introduction that 

265 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

is rather slow in getting started in spring, but 
once on its way produces a continuous succession 
of large poppy-like blooms in golden yellow, pale 
yellow and pure white, the latter especially at- 
tractive with its crown of golden stamens. Its 
chief merit, however, consists in its immunity to 
frost, continuing in full bloom well into Xovember 
— a quality shared by few annual flowers. Per- 
haps as close a companion as can be cited is the 
tall-growing lupine, a beautiful annual that comes 
in purest white, rosy mauve, sky blue, purple 
and scarlet and white and mind not at all the 
frost of late October and early November. The 
soft foliage would seem ill suited to cold, but 
if one looks closely one will notice that the fo- 
liage is dry, not succulent like many annuals that 
succumb readily to the first cold wave. Balsams 
and portulacca are notable examples of this sus- 
ceptibility. 

The nicotianas are other cold-resisting plants 
and have the added advantage of self-sowing — 
not to a troublesome extent but sufficiently to in- 
sure a yearly supply of volunteer plants without 



The Annual Garden 

thought or trouble on the gardener's part. The 
nicotiana does not open up well in bright sun- 
shine, but unfolds its snowy cups in late after- 
noon and on cloudy days, but in shady positions 
is more generous of its beauty and is lovely when 
silhouetted against the flaming red of the salvias. 
The arctotis grandis is another of the less 
commonly grown annuals that should be included 
in one's garden planting. These, too, are sturdy 
defiers of the frost and exceedingly desirable as 
cut flowers, remaining in bloom for a wTek or 
ten days and should be placed in a sunny position 
for best effect as they are real sun lovers. Like 
all the preceding they are of the easiest culture — 
good garden soil, water if the season is unusually 
dry, and plenty of room to develop. The dis- 
tance at which any plant should be set depends, 
of course, upon its manner of growth, but it is an 
excellent rule to plant all erect growing plants 
at least half their height apart. Low-growing 
and trailing plants, of course, are an exception to 
the rule, many requiring two or three times their 
height in inches apart, as the verbena. 

267 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

Few annuals require staking, notable excep- 
tions being the sultanas, tall anterrhinums, scabi- 
osas, the tall stocks and a few others. When 
staking is necessary it should be done by as in- 
conspicuous means as possible; bamboo stakes 
painted green are the neatest and most incon- 
spicuous. 

For masses of brilliant color there is nothing 
to equal the scarlet verbena, the scarlet sage, sal- 
via splendens, the various phlox Drummondii or 
the dwarf nasturtium, the scarlet or orange zin- 
nias and the marigold, and for sweetness one must 
have the sweet peas and the stock. 

Much is gained by the use of low-growing 
plants as a border to beds of taller plants. Blue 
lobelias, dwarf morning glories, Enghsh daisies, 
sweet alyssum, candytuft, all require little root 
room and add materially to the resulting bloom. 

For a screen to mask an undesirable view or 
object there are several very desirable annuals 
that are of the easiest culture and of most effective 
presence. With the stately ricinus all are fa- 
miliar ; less well-known is the tall cleom pungens, 

268 



The Annual Garden 

with its curious flowers of pure white and white 
and rose, the long, curving anthers of which have 
given it the name of "Spider Flower." It is a 
beautiful and desirable plant, and should be 
started in the house or hotbed and transplanted 
where it is to bloom when the nights are warm, 
setting the plants two feet apart. The Nicotiana 
Sylvestris is another stately plant, growing to a 
height of five or six feet in good soil and, unhke 
N. affinnis, its snow-white blooms remain open 
all day and are attractive when grown in the rear 
of beds of salvias. Like the cleom it requires 
room to develop. Practically all annuals may 
be sown in the open ground; the only object in 
sowing in hotbeds or house and transplanting 
is to bring them forward early so as to have the 
longest possible season of bloom. 

To speak of asters seems superfluous, as what- 
ever flowers may be absent from the annual gar- 
den it is a safe venture to claun that the aster will 
not be missing; that is quite as it should be; 
there is really no one flower that so completely 
meets the requirements of scenic effect and cut 

269 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

flower work as the asters- In the stronger colors 
of crimson, purple and blue it is as effective a 
flower as one could wish to use for mass planting", 
while for more refined and delicate beauty no one 
could ask for anything better than the pure white 
and deHcate shell pinks of the Ostrich Feather 
and Late Branching whites. The Comet asters 
are very artistic, attractive flowers but, unfor- 
tunately, do not stand up under wet weather — a 
hard rain reducing them to a dismal, raggy con- 
dition. Set the wide branching asters at least a 
foot apart and see that all asters have clean, 
healthy soil to grow in to avoid the troubles that 
arise when conditions are unfavorable. A warm, 
fibrous loam, well enriched with old manure, is 
best and water should be given freely during dry 
weather, especially when the buds are forming. 
The black aster beetle is the only serious foe of 
the aster and makes its appearance when the 
flowers are in full bloom, doing an immense 
amount of damage in a few hours if not destroyed 
as they eat the petals of the flowers, rendering 
them very unsightly. The only satisfactory rem- 

270 



The Annual Garden 

edy is hand picking in early morning while the 
beetles are sluggish. If a pan of hot water or 
water with a little kerosene in it is carried and the 
beetles dropped into it as gathered it will not be 
difficult to control them. Spraying with arsenate 
of lead will kill them if one does not object to the 
use of poisons on flowers that are to be brought 
into the house. Paris green can also be used but 
discolors the flowers, but hand picking has no ob- 
jectionable features aside from the labor entailed, 
and that is by no means prohibitive as it takes but 
a short time to go over a hundred plants. 

Try planting a few salvias on the shady side of 
the house ; they will not make as much show dur- 
ing the summer as those grown in the sunlight but 
will be in full bloom long after those in exposed 
positions are cut down by frost. 

A few very desirable annuals are plants of 
one florescence and need to have repeated plant- 
ings of seed for a continuous bloom. Most con- 
spicuous of this class of plants is the candytuft 
in white, purple and red and the charming little 
schizanthus, which should be sown every few 

m 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

weeks for a succession of blooms. The plants 
come into bloom in a few weeks from the sowing 
of seed and are perfect little pyramids of bloom. 
Sow fresh seed of candytuft when the first sown 
plants are beginning to form flower buds; used 
in this way the candytuft furnishes a most useful 
white for window-boxes and vases, and is un- 
excelled for edgings of taller plants. 



nn 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE HARDY GARDEN 

IS a permanent investment, possible only in 
the permanent home. It adds dignity and 
charm attainable from no other form of planting. 
It is to the outdoor life of the home what the 
possession of colonial furnitm'e and family heir- 
looms is to the indoor life, and yet is neither ex- 
pensive nor tedious in its inception. It may be 
acquired fully grown, as it were, by an order to 
the florist for ready grown plants of blossoming 
size, ready to give seasonal bloom, or it may be 
developed in a few months, inexpensively and 
most interestingly, by procuring the seeds of as 
many desirable varieties of hardy perennials as 
one has room or inclination for and planting them 
in the hotbed in early spring, and transplanting 
into permanent positions when large enough or, 
better still, by planting the seed in cold frames in 

273 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

August or early September and growing them on 
until cold weather when they should be protected 
for the winter and in the spring planted out where 
they are to bloom. Every hardy perennial set 
out in one's garden is an asset that will increase 
in value each succeeding year. Many have the 
root formation that admits of divisions — as the 
Shasta daisy, a single two year old clump usually 
dividing up into from six to ten blooming-size 
plants. English violets, English daisies, poly- 
anthus, and many other plants may be divided an- 
nually until in time one owns large colonies of 
them, and this is a point well worth under- 
standing, — that a large number of one kind of 
plant is much more effective and worth while 
than a large number of hinds of plants, of just 
one or a few individuals. Many plants which 
are inconspicuous or ineffective singly or in small 
groups, surprise one with their beauty when 
grown in large masses or long rows. The 
ulmaria — a variety of sph^gea of deciduous 
growth — is a notable example of this. Planted 
singly it is merely a rather pretty flower; grown 

274 



The Hardy Garden 

in a long row it is a mass of snowy white in late 
June and July that compels one with its beauty. 
Its congener, the spiraea fillipendula, a lesser 
but most graceful growth, also pleases one es- 
pecially when gro\\TL in long rows in front of 
taller plants. And right here is a point well 
worth considering in planting a hardy border — 
the arranging of plants in rising tiers of bloom so 
that a bank of bloom may be produced. One 
effective bed that gladdened my heart for several 
seasons and rose in tier after. tier of gracious 
bloom through several weeks of early summer had 
an initial planting next the front of tritomas, 
whose scarlet torches of flame did not come into 
bloom until late summer, but from then until 
frost made a brilhant band of color. Back of 
these was a fine planting of columbine, next a 
row of scarlet lychnis alternated with white fever- 
few, and still further back a full planting of 
the garden spiraea whose feathery heads of pinky- 
white flowers stood four or five feet high and in 
turn were topped with fine clumps of physoste- 
gias ; the whole planting making a beautiful bank 

275 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

of bloom and one not commonly seen. This was 
a permanent planting requiring little care be- 
yond the removal of all weeds and grass in the 
spring and an occasional thinning out of the 
plants when they became too crowded. The 
physostegia increases rapidly by root division 
and the lychnis, feverfew and aquilegias all self- 
sow so the bed practically never ran out or needed 
renewing and the cost, except for the tritomas, 
was that of a few packets of seeds — probably 
a total of fifty cents for some one hundred and 
fifty square feet of loveliness, and there are many, 
many combinations as happy and as easily ac- 
quired as that. 

Lacking the convenience of hotbeds and cold 
frames, the vegetable garden is a most excellent 
place in which to start hardy perennials for a per- 
manent garden. Flowers planted in rows among 
vegetables always seem to do better than any- 
where else, the reason being that they are not 
crowded — usually being in single rows with a 
foot or more of open space at each side through 
which the hoe and cultivator can work freely, and 

276 



The Hardy Garden 

where they will receive regular and constant at- 
tention throughout the growing season. In a 
garden of say fifty feet in width, several varieties 
of flowers may be gi'own in short lengths of ten 
feet or more. They should be covered somewhat 
more deeply than when sown in the hotbed or 
cold frame and the ground firmed well above 
them, especially if the weather is dry at the time 
of planting; when the seedlings appear they 
will probably need thinning in order that they 
may not grow spindling, but will not need the 
room they will require when in permanent quar- 
ters. Many kinds of hardy perennials will give 
some bloom the first year, though, of course, they 
will not be at their best, but they will be suffi- 
ciently pronounced to make it possible to select 
those most desirable for cultivation. Delphini- 
ums, for instance, will give small spikes of bloom, 
probably a foot high, the first season and if the 
Gold Medal Hybrids have been planted some 
very lovely blooms will result. In the fall the 
plants may be lifted and set in permanent posi- 
tions, or they may be left in the ground until 

S77 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

spring and then transplanted ; probably this is the 
better treatment providing the ground is not to be 
ploughed too early, as some of the perennials die 
down in the fall and may not appear above the 
ground in time for very early transplanting. 

Evergreen boughs make the best winter cover- 
ing, especially when rested against some support 
with the tips downward, so as to shed rain. They 
do not mat down into a sodden mass as do leaves 
which have a tendency to smother and rot plants 
with an evergreen crown of leaves, but protect 
from sun and cold winds, at the same time ad- 
mitting sufficient air to the plants to keep them in 
good condition. 

When immediate effect is desired from hardy 
perennials which must be produced from seed, 
considerable time may be gained by planting the 
seeds in flats in the house in early February, giv- 
ing them as light a position as possible, a south 
window being preferable, and transplanting the 
little seedlings to the hotbed when that is started 
in March or early April. This will often force 
along the blooms and will certainly produce 



The Hardy Garden 

strong, well developed plants by fall, plants that 
should stand the winter and come out in spring in 
fine condition, ready for a notable season of 
bloom. 

While hardy perennials are generally thought 
of in connection with such herbaceous plants as 
die down to the ground in fall, reappearing again 
in spring, and the few that make a crown of 
winter fohage, like the hollyhocks and delphin- 
iums, no perennial garden could be considered 
complete without an abundance of lihes. These 
may be planted here and there, singly and in 
groups among the perennials and shrubbery and 
will need little attention, increasing in numbers 
year by year. This is especially true of the 
candidum or annunciation lily, which once 
planted continues to increase for many years, but 
should have the clumps broken up once in three 
or four years and spread out to give more room. 
Failure to bloom successfully always calls for in- 
vestigation of the condition of the bulbs. Usu- 
ally it will be found that decay has set in or that 
worms or ants have invaded the bulbs. In either 

279 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

case the bulbs should be lifted and cleaned and 
all diseased scales removed, saving the scales 
for replanting; reset in clean soil, packing a 
handful of clean, sharp sand and a pinch of char- 
coal about each bulb. Candiduin lilies should 
not be set more than an inch or two below the 
surface of the gi'ound, but most other lilies, es- 
pecially the auratums, speciosums, Brownii, and 
giganteums should be planted six or more inches 
deep and well padded with sand. A httle pad 
of sphagnum moss under each bulb is excellent as 
it supplies the necessary drainage. Auratmn 
bulbs and bulbs of the Japanese lilies are not as 
permanent as the candidums and tiger hlies, 
usually lasting a maximum of five years, if left 
undisturbed. 

It is not much use to plant lily bulbs, tulips 
and hyacinths in ground infested with moles. 
The moles should first be eradicated, and then 
bulbs may be planted safely but it is little satis- 
faction to make an extensive and costly planting 
of bulbs only to have them become food for the 
moles and ground mice. I have known plantings 

280 



The Hardy Garden 

of several hundred tulips to be entirely destroyed 
during a single winter. In one such planting 
of five hundred bulbs only three appeared above 
ground the following year. A good mole trap 
is invaluable where moles are in evidence. 



281 



CHAPTER XX 

THE PLANTING OF FALL BULBS 

THE time for planting of hardy perennials 
and shrubbery is optional with the gar- 
dener, many things doing quite as well when 
planted at one season as at another, but in the 
planting of spring blooming bulbs less latitude 
exists; these must be gotten into the ground in 
fall if any measure of success is desired. The 
handling of this class of plants is one of the luxu- 
ries of gardening, as they come all ready to com- 
mence root growth, but in a perfect dormant con- 
dition, and may be gotten into the ground very 
much at one's convenience, and regardless of 
weather ; the earlier they are planted the stronger 
root growth they will be able to make before the 
ground freezes, which makes for stronger bloom 
in the spring. 

Crocus, scillas, narcissi, daffodils, tulips, hya- 
cinths and the like may be planted from the time 

/CO*-*- 



The Planting of Fall Bulbs 

they can be procured from the florist (which 
is usually in September) until the ground freezes. 
They will grow and bloom to perfection in any 
good, well-drained garden soil, providing it is 
not infested by moles and ground mice but beware 
of these, as they seem to possess an insatiable ap- 
petite for bulbs and once they have entered a bed 
will seldom leave it until they have exhausted its 
resources. 

I recall that a few years ago I planted, in an 
empty canna bed on the front lawn, some five 
hundred choice, named tulips. The following 
spring just three tulip plants appeared above 
ground — the moles having destroyed the other 
four hundred and ninety-seven. In the flower 
garden where other hundreds of bulbs had been 
used to border beds of hardy perennials, they 
fared somewhat better, the greater part coming 
up, but many had been destroyed and still others 
carried far from the place of their planting, com- 
ing up as much as three feet away in the middle 
of paths and in sod. 

One of the most satisfactory ways of using 
283 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

tulips is to plant them as a border to beds of per- 
ennials or shrubs, setting them in single, double 
or triple rows, along the edge and leaving them 
to ripen and increase from year to year; in this 
way one gets the greatest good at the least ex- 
penditure of time and space. When they are 
planted in beds by themselves it is customary to 
lift them when through blooming and to heel 
them in in some out-of-the-way spot until the tops 
have died when they may be Hfted and stored in 
paper bags until time to plant out again in the 
fall. This leaves the beds free for summer an- 
nuals or bedding plants. If it is not desired to 
lift them, then one may sow seed of some annual 
of light root growth such as the myostis or forget- 
me-not, the schizanthus, pansy, verbena, or phlox 
Drumondii, as these plants will not interfere with 
the maturing of the bulbs and the protection af- 
forded them from the heat of smnmer will be of 
benefit. 

The soil for any variety of bulbs should be rich, 
mellow and thoroughly well drained and it is 

284 



The Planting of Fall Bulbs 

better in planting any but the smallest bulbs to 
remove a few inches of the top soil and having 
leveled off the surface mark it in straight Hnes 
from side to side each way so that the lines cross 
each other and set a bulb at each intersection of 
the lines. For tulips the lines ' should be five 
inches apart each way and for hyacinths seven 
inches. Where solid beds of hyacinths or tulips 
are planted small bulbs, such as crocus, scilla 
or winter aconite, may be used for filling in 
the spaces between with charming effect. White 
crocus and blue scillas are especially dainty, or 
the lovely ixias may be used but in this case the 
beds must be very carefully protected against the 
cold and covering removed with discretion in the 
spring. 

Narcissus, daffodils, jonquils and all that fam- 
ily appear to better advantage when planted in 
long double or triple rows and should be set a 
foot apart each way and about four inches deep. 
These bulbs increase by forming new bulbs in a 
circle around the old bulb and should be allowed 

285 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

abundant room to increase and once planted 
should not be disturbed until they have become 
too crowded to bloom well. 

Crocuses are never so lovely as when studding 
the green of the lawn in early spring and this is 
the simplest form of planting, it only being 
necessary to lift a bit of sod with a trowel, slip 
a crocus bulb underneath and press the sod back 
above it. Plant them informally, singly, in 
groups. Scatter them freely about with the hand 
and bury them where they fall. There is one 
precaution, however, to be observed in this system 
of planting — the lawn-mower must be withheld 
in spring until the crocuses have matured their 
leaves or there will be no flowers the following 
spring. 

All spring bulbs profit by a liberal application 
of old, well-rotted manure but this should be 
either spaded deep in the beds below where the 
bulbs will set or used as a top dressing after the 
soil removed before planting has been replaced 
and not allowed to come in contact with the 
bulbs. Manure is not only harmful in itself but 

286 



The Planting of Fall Bulbs 

it is also the home of the little white wire worms 
so injm'ious to all bulbs and especially to lilies, 
and almost always when bulbs are found to be 
not doing well the trouble will prove to be either 
worms or poor drainage. 

A part of the winter covering of all bulb beds 
should be lifted as soon as growth starts in the 
spring as a stockier, stronger growth results but 
the finer portion should be left and in case of such 
tender bulbs as ixias that removed may be kept 
handy to replace in case of an unusually cold 
snap. 

Many of the miscellaneous bulbs offered by the 
florists are desirable when grown in well estab- 
lished groups, but lack effect planted singly or 
in too small groups. One of the loveliest of sum- 
mer-blooming bulbs is found in the anthericum 
or St. Bruno's lily. These should be set in 
colonies in the hardy border where they may 
remain undistm-bed for years. Plant about 
three inches deep and four inches apart. Al- 
liums, chinodoxia, and bulbs of this class need 
grouping to be at their best, otherwise they are 

287 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

apt to appear rather straggly. I like to see bulbs 
colonized among the shrubbery and the edge of 
evergreens where they appear at their best in 
the early days of spring and do not seriously in- 
terfere with the use of the lawn-mower later on. 



288 



CHAPTER XXI 

ECONOMY IN THE PURCHASE OF SHRUBBERY 

MAY often be achieved by a wise selection 
of varieties. Any extensive planting 
runs up into dollars fast, especially if the larger 
sized shrubs are selected. Fortunately success- 
ful planting depends as much upon a number of 
plants of one variety as upon the size and dis- 
tinction of the sorts. A dozen " plants of one 
variety of spiraea, for instance, is far more ef- 
fective than one plant each of twelve varieties — 
try it and see if I am not right. 

If, therefore, one has several strips of lawn to 
embellish with shrubbery and wishes to econ- 
omize the expenditure as far as possible it will 
be found a most excellent plan to make a mixed 
planting on the most urgent section, selecting 
those shrubs which by their manner of root forma- 
tion offer possibilities of rapid increase and use 
the product for subsequent planting; taking all 

289 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

of the sort of plant so as to leave as few varieties 
in the old bed as possible and in this way simpli- 
fying the ultimate planting of the entire grounds. 

When these new offspring have reached a 
presentable size they may be retained and the 
other sorts which can now be spared may be 
removed to a new location, planting out the 
youngsters in their vacated positions. 

There are three classes of plants which lend 
themselves very readily to propagation through 
root division, layering and root offshoots. The 
first is found in those plants which make an ex- 
uberant root system of many fine feeding roots 
and many stems. A good example of this class 
is found in the Hydrangea arborescens which may 
be hfted, pulled apart and the several plants re- 
set without in any way disturbing its growth in- 
tention. In this respect it differs materially 
from H. paniculata which, while making a gen- 
erous root system, has but the one main stem and 
so is incapable of division but is easily propagated 
by cuttings thrust into the ground in the shade of 
the plant earty in June. H. arborescens is 

290 



Economy in the Purchase of Shrubbery 

similar in habit to many perennials which are 
increased by root division, as for instance the 
Shasta daisy, English daisy, English violets, 
polyanthus and others. 

Often a plant of H. arborescens purchased 
from the florist will admit of the removal of two 
or three smaller parts without seriously injuring 
the appearance of the original plant and if these 
are set out and well cared for they will quickly 
develop into blossoming plants for this form is 
an early and reliable bloomer. . 

Spiraea Anthony Waterer is another shrub 
which may be increased by pulKng apart the 
roots ; indeed this plant is benefited by occasional 
treatment of this sort, doing much better and 
flowering more freely. Planted in front of taller 
shrubs it is a very desirable and reliable plant and 
if the faded flowers are removed after the spring 
florescence it will continue to produce flowers 
throughout the summer. 

One of the most easily propagated shrubs is 
found in the symphoricarpus or snow-berry; in- 
deed, in the case of this pretty shrub the difliculty 

291 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

is not to increase one's stock as the new growth is 
usually prostrate the first year, lying supinely 
on the ground and if left undisturbed will throw 
out roots at the joints and rapidly produce at- 
tractive little plants as robust as the parent stock. 
Lifting the branches occasionally will prevent 
rooting but usually one likes to have the new 
plants form. I do. After becoming well rooted 
the branch should be severed between the plant 
and the parent. As the root growth is dense, 
consisting of a mass of fibrous roots, the young 
plants can be lifted at almost any time and reset 
without much check to growth. The pale, pinky- 
white flowers come in mid-summer, followed by 
the white berries which remain on the bushes well 
into the winter and are very attractive. 

Somewhat similar in its way of increase is the 
Deutzia-Pride of Rochester. That magnificent 
shrub which challenges our admiration when cov- 
ered with its drooping, bell-shaped white flowers 
late in June and which, under favorable condi- 
tions, assumes the proportions of a small tree. 
Like the symphoricarpus the lateral branches are 

292 



Economy in the Purchase of Shrubbery 

more or less inclined to a recumbent or prostrate 
habit or because of their flexibility are easily 
pegged down and root easily at the joint but do 
not make as vigorous root growth and the joint 
should have a little earth drawn over it and be 
kept moist by placing a stone on top. This shrub 
is so altogether desirable that several branches 
may well be devoted to the increase of stock, one 
or more plants being produced from each branch. 

Of those shrubs which throw up suckers from 
the roots the hlac will occur to most people as a 
well-known example, so if in buying the newer, 
double-flowered sorts one will insist on purchasing 
plants upon their own roots and not be satisfied 
with grafted plants one will soon become pos- 
sessed of a quite respectable planting of lilacs 
of notable size and color of bloom. The suckers 
should be removed as soon as they have had one 
season of growth for the protection of the parent 
plant which will be much depleted in bloom by 
their permanent presence. 

One of the most beautiful foliage shrubs, the 
fern-leaved sumac — Rhus typhina laciniata — 

293 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

forms root rhizomes which send up volmiteer 
plants at each joint. These should be removed 
and replanted. This is one of the most beauti- 
ful ornamentals with which I am acquainted, 
quite rivalling the Japanese maples. The leaves 
are compound or pinnate, fifteen to eighteen 
inches long and of a dark, rich green on the upper 
side, glaucous beneath and with a rich red mid- 
rib — an elegant fern-like spray which is very use- 
ful in cut flower work and in autumn turns to the 
most vivid crimson imaginable. It does best 
when protected from severe wind, from which it 
seems to shrink, distorting its symmetrical 
growth. In good rich soil a half dozen offshoots 
may appear the second year after planting and 
after one has once become familiar with its beauty 
all will be welcome. 

Another small tree or shrub with similar char- 
acteristics is the Aralia spinosa or Hercules' club 
as it is conmionly called. This also has the com- 
pound leaves somewhat resembling the black 
walnut but of gigantic proportions, two to 
three feet in length and of equal breadth, giving 

294 



Economy in the Purchase of Shrubbery^ 

the tree a most tropical effect. It is very easily 
transplanted and a few trees in a clump are very 
effective or it is fine as a specimen tree and owing 
to its abundance of spines can be utilized effect- 
ively as a hedge. Where only a single tree is 
wanted it is easily kept in check by cutting out 
the rhizomes with a spade close to the parent 
plant. 

The euonymus, or burning bush as the In- 
dians always called it, propagates itself by means 
of its coral berries which appear in quantities in 
late summer or early fall. One finds the volun- 
teer plants appearing every spring in places 
where one least expects them and one can lift and 
transplant them wherever desired. 

Another most attractive shrub which may be 
easily raised from seed sown in spring is the 
Buddleya — a plant with long racemes — in the 
newer form of B. veitchiaa, over twenty inches 
long, of violet mauve flowers of a delightful violet 
fragrance. Spring-sown seed will often produce 
blossoming plants the first season which in the 
second will attain a height of from three to five 

295 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

feet and be a perfect bouquet of bloom through- 
out the summer. The branches are somewhat 
pendulous and in the young state are better for a 
little support. They afford delightful material 
for cut-flower work and the odor has that fugi- 
tive elusive quality of the violet, seeming to come 
from different directions and to elude one's 
search. 

It will be found an excellent plant to combine 
with Spirasa Van Hutti as it comes into bloom 
after that splendid plant has rested on its laurels 
for the summer and keeps the hedgerow alive 
with bloom and fragrance. 



296 



CHAPTER XXII 

A CONTINUOUS SUCCESSION OF BLOOM IN 
THE SHRUBBERY 

HOW TO SECURE IT 

THE planting of shrubbery about the home 
is so important that it may well take 
precedence of the flower garden. proper or even 
the grading of the lawn itself. Indeed, if one 
owns the site of a home and the building is yet 
in the future, no better expenditure of one's spare 
time and dollars can be inaugurated than such 
initial planting as shall insure the presence of 
blooming shrubs about the home at the time of 
its completion so that all may be beautiful and 
perfect together, rather than that two or three 
years must elapse before one can begin to enjoy 
the results. 

Hardy shrubs vary very greatly in the pre- 
cociousness of their bloom, certain forms giving 

297 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

quite noticeable results the second season, while 
others need two or three years' growth even to 
indicate what their ultimate beauty will be. 

The location, too, will have much to do with re- 
sults. For a low planting about the foundation 
of the house, in front of porches or to top low ter- 
races many plants may be employed which would 
be unsatisfactory in places at a distance where 
a general effect is desired more than an intimate 
relation. For masking a building, hiding an un- 
desirable view and the like, tall-growing shrubs 
and flowering trees are usually preferred and 
these being of more or less slow growth require 
time to develop. 

In all shrubbery planting it will be found that 
a number of plants of one sort is far more ef- 
fective than one or two plants each of many dis- 
tinct kinds. The mistake is often made of plant- 
ing only shrubs which bloom together, producing 
a medley of more or less inharmonious colors and 
form for a few weeks in spring leaving the shrub- 
bery bare and uninteresting for the remainder of 
the year. This is a mistake I have often made 

298 



A Continuous Blooin in the Shrubbery 

in my own garden, but one which I usually rec- 
tify by planting in other shrubs which will come 
forward when the first have ceased to bloom. 

For a number of years a very beautiful hedge 
of Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora has sep- 
arated the lawn from the flower garden ; only one 
objection could be urged against it — its flower- 
less condition throughout most of the summer. 
To overcome this objection, scarlet salvias were 
alternated between the plants and an edging of 
scarlet and white phlox made a mass of color from 
mid-June until well into October. This, of 
course, was not legitimate shrubbery planting, 
so recourse was made to alternating Hydrangea 
arborescens with the paniculata. These coming 
into bloom late in June gave a very satisfactory 
arrangement, but this year Deutzia-Pride of 
Rochester, which also blooms in June, was intro- 
duced and I am anticipating much pleasure from 
the addition. 

A hedge of Spiraea Van Hutti extending from 
the house to the road is very beautiful in early 
May, but inconspicuous and uninteresting the 

299 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

remainder of the summer. If it had been in a 
situation demanding a heavier planting I should 
have alternated the plants, setting them behind 
the spiraeas, with forsythias — whose golden yel- 
low blooms make bright the garden in earhest 
spring — and between the forsythias introduced 
the deutzias. 

There are few more satisfactory and graceful 
plants for use in front of a porch than this Spiraea 
Van Hutti; its gracefully curved branches, 
though growing to a good length, curve away 
gracefully from the building, bending with their 
weight of snowy bloom almost to the ground and 
the growth is very strong and rapid, but never 
coarse. It is the very best early blooming shrub 
to date. 

Very lovely effects may be secured by alter- 
nating the spiraea with the Weigela Eve Rathke, 
and keeping this down to a somewhat prostrate 
habit ; this will give a perfect sheet of bloom from 
early May until the last of June and a less-pro- 
nounced show of flowers throughout the re- 
mainder of summer from the weigela, 

300 



A Continuous Bloom in the Shrubbery 

There is a strong tendency when purchasing 
shrubbery to select a little of everything — one 
plant of each, perhaps. I do this myself — not 
without excuse perhaps on my part, for we people 
who write for the benefit of others have to get 
our knowledge by, often costly, experience, and 
not by the mere reading of nursery catalogues. 
It is sometimes a most excellent thing to gratify 
this inclination providing one has a piece of land 
which can be devoted to experimental purposes 
and where one can shift things about until one 
has gained just the right combination and ex- 
posure for each plant. A strip of ground twelve 
or fifteen feet wide and as long as available will 
give room for a very successful planting of small 
trees and shrubs and hardy perennials may be 
introduced to fill in until the shrubs have reached 
an effective size. Ulmarias, hardy phlox, ori- 
ental poppies, rudbeckias and the like will be 
found very useful and tall clumps of lilies should 
always be interspersed in all permanent plantings. 

It will often be found that some shrub which 
one has admired at close range is entirely in- 

301 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

effective in the shrubbery border; take, for in- 
stance, the Tartarian honeysuckle — a pretty 
enough thing close at hand but ineffectual and 
insignificant at any distance. 

For a long shrubbery border of twelve or fif- 
teen feet wide no better selection of shrubs can be 
made than these seven perfectly reliable and 
hardy shrubs — Forsythia, April; Spir^a Van 
Hutti, May; Deutzia Pride of Kochester, June; 
Hydrangea arborescens, July, August; Hy- 
drangea paniculata, September; Althea, Octo- 
ber and November. These are — with perhaps 
the exception of the althea, which is sometimes 
uncertain — absolutely hardy and reliable plants 
which increase in size and beauty from year to 
year and insure a constant succession of bloom 
throughout the summer and fall so that by their 
use the shrubbery border need never be with- 
out flowers. 

In planting a border of these mixed shrubs at- 
tention to arrangement will have much to do with 
success. Of course it will occur to the most inex- 
perienced that the taller shrubs should be in the 

302 



A Continuous Bloom in the Shrubbery 

rear, but it is not necessary or desirable that they 
should be planted in a rigid, unbroken line. Bet- 
ter that the line be somewhat waved, dipping for- 
ward occasionally a step or two. Then it will, 
of course, occur that the lowest forms will be in 
front, but this line, too, may be broken occasion- 
ally with advantage, allowing the second row to 
step forward enough to prevent too much formal- 
ity of outline. 

Where immediate effect is desired, and this is 
invariably the case, either large specimen shrubs 
should be used or, if the smaller sorts seem more 
available, then these should be set as close again 
as would be done in the planting of large spec- 
imens and after they have made two or three 
years' growth and have begun to crowd, every 
other plant may be Hfted and used to start a new 
shrubbery elsewhere. 

This was what was done with my hydrangea 
hedge, started as a border between the front 
lawn and a pear orchard. The plants were first 
set three feet apart in a single row. When they 
had filled up the intervening space they were 

303 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

lifted and used for a hedge in the rear of the lawn, 
this time being set six feet apart, a distance 
which they soon closed, and for weeks in the fall 
were a wonderful mass of bloom. A hedge of 
Spiraea Van Hutti replaced the hydrangeas in 
the front and these will probably remain un- 
disturbed for a number of years as, owing to the 
proximity of a magnificent maple tree, they do 
not make the strong growth they do in more fa- 
vorable situations. 

Although I have suggested the forsythia, 
spirsea, deutzia, hydrangeas and althea, etc., as the 
seven very best shrubs for general planting there 
are very many more worthy of adoption. 
Among these the various weigelas, especially the 
red varieties, the syringas and the lilacs should 
not be overlooked. Of the latter, far too little 
is known, most people being content with a bush 
or two of the old-fashioned purple and white of 
their grandmothers' garden, and perhaps, as a 
truth, these old sorts appeal to our hearts more 
strongly than the newer, more showy varieties 
and it is in no spirit of disparagement that I urge 

304 



A Continuous Bloom in the Shrubbery 

the adoption of some of the newer sorts — not to 
displace, but to supplement and extend the lilac 
season over a period unknown to the old-time 
garden. 

Syringa vulgaris, alba and purpurea are 
usually through blooming by the twentieth of 
May, or thereabouts, but Emodi, with its rosy- 
white flowers, is ushered in with the early days of 
June and Josikaea shows its first purple blooms 
late in the same month about the time that the 
creamy-white panticles of Japonica appear. 
The new double-flowered, named sorts come into 
bloom about the time of the common sorts and 
are well worth the extra cost they involve. Mme. 
Cassimire Perier and Pres. Grevy are two of the 
finest sorts and should be in every collection. 

In buying lilacs it will pay well to purchase 
those on their own roots. Most of the named 
lilacs are grafted on common stock and the 
suckers are annoying and worthless and if allowed 
to grow will seriously interfere with the blooming 
of the graft. Such shoots as come from true 
roots can be detached and used to increase the 

305 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

supply of plants and are, therefore, most valu- 
able additions. 

One of the most beautiful small trees for plant- 
ing where a light and feathery effect is sought or 
against a background of evergreens is found in 
the tamarix. I know of nothing so airy and 
graceful as these at all times and especially when 
in bloom. The flowers, which are very tiny, quite 
cover the branches at the time of blooming in 
May, in mid-summer and in fall according to their 
season and there is a marked difference in the 
foliage which in certain species shows a decided 
blue tinge which is very beautiful. Unfortunately 
they are not always entirely hardy at the north 
and require a somewhat protected position. 
They are very useful at the seashore, being one 
of the few things which can stand the salt air. 
As they make a rapid growth one can afford to 
experiment with them until just the right en- 
vironment is found for they are well worth trying 
for and planted in groups of the different sorts 
will give a succession of bloom all summer. They 
are very useful for cut-flower work, making ex- 

306 



A Continuous Bloom in the Shrubbery 

quisite bouquets when placed in dull green 
majolica or similar holders. 

Very careful preparation of the ground for 
shrubbery is essential as once planted they 
usually remain undisturbed for years; for this 
reason the earth should be dug very deep, under- 
drained, if necessary, and thoroughly fertilized. 

After planting the ground should be kept cul- 
tivated by hoeing or by the use of the scuffle-hoe — 
anything which will maintain a dust-mulch, pre- 
vent the earth drying out and caking and retain 
the moisture. The success of the planting de- 
pends upon this one feature more than upon any 
other one thing. A plant insufficiently supplied 
with moisture during the growing season is quite 
certain to succumb to the rigors of the succeeding 
winter — not, indeed, on account of the cold itself, 
but the condition in which it entered the winter. 

The best season for the planting of all hardy 
shrubs is early spring, before growth starts, the 
next best, late fall after the foliage has dropped. 
Altheas and white birch trees, however, do better 
with spring planting. 

307 



CHAPTER XXIII 

GARDENING FOR SHUT-INS 

THEKE are possibilities in the indoor cul- 
ture of flowers, though it may seem to the 
casual observer, that only open air culture would 
justify one in undertaking the growing of a 
flower garden on any extended scale; but open 
air gardening, while it certainly makes for un- 
limited area of flower beds and a great variety 
of sorts has still its drawbacks of inclement 
weather, insufficient or too much moisture, much 
humbling of one's physical self on bended knees 
and a summer-long fight with the myriad insect 
pests, from the tiny aphis that colonizes itself on 
the tip of every green shoot in early spring, to 
•the predatory mole that furrows up paths and 
beds, making efficient drains to deflect all water 
intended for the refreshment of the plants. 
Such indoor plants as one may elect to grow 
308 



Gardening for Shut-ins 

are assured an adequate and continuous supply 
of moisture, a soft and friable soil, a reasonable 
freedom from insect pests and a certain amount 
of protection from burning sun and drj^^ing winds. 
oMoreover they are not restricted in their season 
of bloom to a few months of the year ; the indoor 
garden may be in bloom the year around — a be- 
witching succession of most of the seasons re- 
pertoire of bloom. 

The indoor garden may have its beginning in 
the late days of September, when the hardy 
spring blooming bulbs come into the market. 
Nearly all of this class of plants force readily and 
pots and window boxes may be filled with soil, 
planted to tulips, hyacinths, narcissi, valley 
lilies, and the like and set aside in a cool dark 
cellar for midwinter blooming, requiring no fur- 
ther care for weeks to come. In the meantime 
their places need not be kept empty waiting their 
time of bloom but boxes and pots of bright gera- 
niums, cinnerarias, primroses, cyclamen and the 
like will keep bright every nook and corner one 
can spare. Nothing is more dainty and delight- 

309 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

f ul than a window full of primroses, and no plant 
will give a more generous and constant succes- 
sion of bloom from fall until spring. 

As far as practicable, the growing of plants 
in window-boxes instead of pots will be found 
more satisfactory. Inside boxes which are narrow 
enough to rest on the window-sill are preferable 
and the plants may be planted directly in the 
boxes or, if preferred, in pots and the pots 
plunged into the boxes with moss packed between 
the pots to retain the moisture. This gives a 
better moisture condition than when the pots 
are stood on a shelf, exposed on all sides to the 
drying air of the living-room. It has the added 
advantage of allowing the pots to be lifted from 
the box for spraying the foliage, a great help 
to successful gi'owth, and to apply such insecti- 
cides as may occasionally be needed. Plants 
grown in the dry air of the living-room are apt 
to be affected by red spider ; this is especially no- 
ticeable with such plants as cinnerarias, calceola- 
rias and a few others. Those who are so for- 
tunate as to possess that modern essential of a 

810 



Gardening for Shut-ins 

well equipped house — a sun room — will find 
limitless opportunities for flori-culture, boxes be- 
neath the windows, trellises against the walls and 
hanging baskets, all affording opportunity for 
much delightful work with floAvers. 

One of the most fascinating features of indoor 
gardening is found in the growing of greenhouse 
and other flowers from seed, and this is a feature 
especially suited to the invalid or shut in. The 
little flats in which seed is started are so hght and 
easily handled and the plants grown from seed 
so sure to do well that one may depend almost 
entirely on plants from this source. Almost any 
light, shallow box may be used, as flat, half size 
cigar boxes, codfish boxes, or boxes specially 
constructed to fit the window-sills and divided 
by strips of wood into several compartments may 
be used. All require the same treatment — a 
few holes to insure drainage, a fine mellow soil 
of fibrous loam, leaf mold and a little sharp sand, 
filled to within a half inch of the top of the box 
and well shaken down, and the best seed procur- 
able. 

311 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

All begonias, rex, fibrous and tuberous may be 
readily grown from seed which should be lightly 
scattered over the surface of the soil and pressed 
down with a bit of smooth board, then set in a 
pan of water till the sm-face looks dark, surplus 
water drained away, covered with white paper, 
glass and set in a warm place till the tiny plants 
break through the soil, when they should be given 
air and light gradually and encouraged to make 
a healthy, sturdy growth from the start. 

A low, broad table with a large, shallow drawer 
and a shelf half way down one side will be found 
the most convenient place to work and this can 
be moved as the work progresses from place to 
place so as to make as little walking and lifting 
as possible. Another work-table that I have 
found most convenient consists of a broad 
shelf — hinged to a strip of wood nailed to the 
window-casing, as wide as the window-casing 
and deep enough to reach the floor when dropped 
down out of use. This is held in place by two 
strips of metal attached to the window-casing that 
hook over screw-heads in the side of the shelf, 

312 



Gardening for Shut-ins 

but drop down against the wall when not in use. 
Such a shelf affords an excellent working surface 
for starting seeds in fiats, bulbs and cuttings in 
.pots and is indispensable for drawing plants 
away from a window on stormy nights. If fin- 
ished to match the woodwork of the room it will 
be an attractive feature whether in use or dropped 
down out of the way and may be used for papers 
and magazines when not required for plants. 
For the latter purpose a neat finish is a border 
to match the standing woodwork' and a center of 
green baize of felt. 

There are a number of attractive vines and 
trailing plants — the Asparagus Sprengeri, Ma- 
nettia vine, Thumbergia — that may be grown 
successfully from seed and add greatly to the in- 
terest of the indoor garden. 

At this time of the year it will be worth while 
to start seeds of certain garden annuals for use 
in outside window-boxes. Nasturtiums, ver- 
benas, candytuft, phlox Drummondii, petunias, 
coleus, ageratums, daisies, lobelias, all make 
bright and charming window gardens and when 

313 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

the sliding screens are used that may be pushed 
up out of the way, the boxes may be planted and 
cared for from the inside with little fatigue. 

Hanging baskets add much to the charm of 
sun room and porch, but are difficult to care for 
as usually arranged, but if instead of hanging 
from a short chain from a hook in the ceiling or 
cornice of porch or sun room, the basket is at- 
tached to a stout cord passed over a pulley and 
the free end provided with a couple of rings to 
hook over hooks in the side wall or pillars to hold 
it at the desired height it can be lowered on to a 
table for attention with little trouble. The moss- 
lined wire baskets are the best for this purpose; 
they retain moisture and are free from danger of 
breakage. If a pail of water is placed on the 
table beneath them and the basket lowered into 
this and allowed to remain until the soil is thor- 
oughly soaked, then raised sufficiently by one of 
the rings to drain away all surplus water, the 
plants will be in the best possible condition to 
grow and bloom. 

314 



Gardening for Shut-ins 

One of the most fascinating plants for grow- 
ing indoors is the little Japanese rosebushes, 
which may be grown from seeds into blooming 
plants in from six to eight weeks. They make 
the daintiest, most charming little plants imagin- 
able. Shapely, many branched and loaded with 
bloom they are the very daintiest "Favors" 
imaginable for luncheons and other social affairs 
and are charming gifts at all times. The blos- 
soms are about the size of a ten cent piece, and 
come in white, pink and red. The seeds may be 
sown in the pots — three inch ones, in which they 
are to bloom or may be sown in flats and pricked 
out into pots when large enough. I have found 
the seed to germinate very freely and the plants 
to grow on finely from the start. When planted 
in pots these should be plunged in a shallow box 
of wet sand or moss in a sunny window. This is 
the way to handle all young greenhouse plants, 
especially cyclamen, cinnerarias, gloxinias, car- 
nations, Lady Washington geraniums and the 
like. To keep them growing vigorously they 

315 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

should not be allowed to dry out, nor to become 
soggy with too much water. 

For starting summer-blooming bulbs the use 
of moss in shallow boxes or baskets will be found 
more convenient than the heavier soil. The 
sphagnum moss used by florists for shipping 
plants is the sort needed and may be used again 
and again if necessary, the only merit it has being 
its retention of moisture, exclusion of air and 
lightness for handling. 

If one wishes to grow from seed for outdoor 
planting the hardier annuals and perennials, then 
somewhat larger and deeper flats should be used, 
but none over four inches in depth should be un- 
dertaken. In these such readily salable plants 
as asters, salvias, balsams, cob^a scandens, 
Shasta daisies, pansies, and the like will prove 
a veritable little pin-money mine and equally 
profitable will be found peppers, cauliflowers, 
bush musk-melons and other of the choicer vege- 
tables, all requiring, practically, the same treat- 
ment. 

The shut-in who wishes to specialize in the 
316 



Gardening for Shut-ins 

unusual might make an attempt to imitate the 
dwarf trees of China and Japan. This is not so 
impossible or difficult as it appears as the appear- 
ance of great age is more often the result of skill 
than of many years. 



317 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE POSSIBILITIES OF A CITY FLAT 

THE possibilities of the city flat will depend 
upon just how much window space the flat 
affords and how much sunlight the windows re- 
ceive, for upon the amount of light will depend 
not so much the quantities of flowers which may 
be grown, as their character. 

It may be possible that, in a restricted area, but 
one window can be devoted to the growing of 
plants during the winter season and where that 
is the case one will wish to realize as much pleas- 
ure as possible from that one window. If it is 
a sunny window then it will be an easy matter 
to fill it full of bright flowers. Now no flower 
so well withstands the heat and dust of our liv- 
ing-rooms as the geraniums, but it is by no means 
necessary that they should be of the more com- 
mon zonal type. The Lady Washington ge- 

318 



The Possibilities of a City Flat 

raniums — pelargoniums — are far more. beautiful 
and even more prolific in their bloom. They 
may be purchased all ready to bloom of the flor- 
ist or easily raised, from spring sown seed, to 
blooming size by fall. Heliotropes, the sweet- 
est of all flowers, will bloom freely in any sunny 
window if the precaution is taken to spray or wet 
the foliage thoroughly every day; without this 
refreshing bath the foliage will curl up and die 
and the buds blast. 

The carnation is an excellent plant for the 
sunny window but must be sprayed frequently 
to keep in check the red spider, and all the spring 
blooming bulbs can be depended upon for the 
winter window garden and have this advantage 
that they can be potted in the fall, tucked away 
in a dark closet somewhere and brought out when 
ready to begin blooming, and again relegated to 
any out of the way place as soon as their season 
of bloom is passed. 

The most convenient way of growing house 
plants where there are only common windows to 
accommodate them is in boxes made to fit the 

319 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

window-sills. The ready-to-use metal boxes are 
very handy and satisfactory, but not as attractive 
as simple boxes made of wood to match the stand- 
ing woodwork of the room; these should have a 
metal lining to protect the woodwork and if the 
expense of boxes of hardwood in a rented flat 
seems undesirable, very simple boxes of cheap 
wood may be made to imitate the hardwood finish 
by giving a covering of the paper or wood pulp 
that comes in all the natural hardwood finishes. 
This is simply pasted on the boxes and when dry 
should be given a coat of sizing-glue dissolved in 
hot water to a thin paste, and when this is dry 
a coat of varnish or jap-a-lac. This will be 
so successful that few casual observers will de- 
tect the substitution. A very pretty plant box 
can be evolved from a single cheese box, cut 
down a couple of inches covered with the paper 
and supplied with legs or mounted on a small 
lamp stand, or white enamel will be charming, es- 
pecially when the box is filled with blooming 
tulips or narcissi, or given over to ferns, aspara- 
gus vines and the like. 

320 



The Possibilities of a City Flat 

Where one has a window opening on to an air 
shaft or a court that gives no view but infringes 
one's privacy a delightful screen which will not 
deprive one of too much light and air, but effectu- 
ally screen the window is made from a box the 
length of the window-sill, fitted with double 
casters to allow it to be moved from place to 
place. A long rod or wire, long enough to extend 
upright as high as the screen is desired, cross 
over and return on the other side, should be fitted 
into the end boards close to the back by boring 
holes with a drill the size of the rod for nearly 
the depth of the wood and the ends of the wii'es 
firmly sunk in them. The frame is then covered 
with wire netting or twine and the box planted 
to some light, graceful vine like the asparagus 
plumosus nanna, the manettia vine, claroden- 
dron, but the plumosus nanna is an excellent 
choice. Such a screen is very convenient and 
artistic between two rooms where it is desired 
to leave a door open for air, but desirable to 
screen the contents of one of them. 

It is the summer flat, however, that offers the 
321 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

greater possibilities of floriculture for in this sea- 
son the boxes may be placed outside of the win- 
dows if properly secured, and a much greater 
variety of plants grown, for there is no exposure 
for which there are not many delightful things 
available. A north window, that to many would 
seem especially undesirable for plants, will often 
be found to develop the most interesting boxes. 
All the hardier varieties of cultivated ferns may 
be usual here, all the blooming and fibrous rooted 
begonias, all the asparagus fern, especially A. 
sprengeri, the various impatiens, especially I. 
sultani, the traihng fuchsias, abutilons, varie- 
gated wandering Jew, aspidistras, farfugiums. 
Palm grass, Pannicum Excurrens — a palm-like 
grass which one has to send to southern florists 
for but which grows rankly at the north, either 
in the house or in the open ground — is good. 
I bedded one out in spring, intending to lift 
in the fall for interior decoration and found it to 
have made so sturdy a root growth, and so im- 
mense a top that it defied a spade to move it 
and had to be abandoned to the frost. Within 

322 



The Possibilities of a City Flat 

doors its long, curved leaves are most attractive 
and interesting. It is a magnificent plant for 
the rear wall of a sun room or conservatory. 

If one occupies a flat with a rear outside stair- 
case, then one may utilize the top of the railing 
to place boxes of traihng nasturtiums and bright 
flowers — a planting of nasturtiums in the rear, 
a middle planting of geraniums, justitias, pe- 
tunias, verbenas, phlox drummondii, etc., and a 
fringe of sweet alyssum or other delicate trailer 
along the front will give a succession of bloom 
all the summer long. 

Along the outer edge of the steps one may ar- 
range small but deep boxes of earth and in each 
plant blooming vines such as the Japanese morn- 
ing glory, the cobsea scandens, flowering beans, 
or that gay little new vine — the cardinal 
climber. These may be trained to run on wire 
or cord so as to afford privacy for the stairway, 
or if this is not desired, traihng vines and erect 
plants may be used instead, the trailers masking 
the unlovely architecture of the stairs. 

Possibly one may be in possession of one of 
323 



The Busy Woman's Garden Book 

those flats whose side windows look out upon the 
roof of a lower building — a tin roof expansion of 
ugliness which is a hindrance to spiritual calm 
and mental cheerfulness. If this is the case, 
why not utilize it to create a roof garden? If 
the area is small one can utilize all of it, if too 
large then pre-empt the portion nearest one 
and draw a trellis of wire across the boundary 
line on which one may grow in long, narrow 
boxes of soil morning glories galore. It is not 
necessary that these boxes be of anything but 
the roughest construction; home-made boxes, 
evolved from old packing cases, are as good as 
anything as they will be masked by the plants and 
vines; these should extend around three or even 
all four sides of the roof, those in the rear and, 
if it is desired to secure privacy, those on the sides, 
being planted with vines or tall-growing plants 
like ricinus, cannas, cleomes, cosmos and the like. 
It will not be desirable to leave too much open 
space in a garden of this sort, unless it will be pos- 
sible to cover the roof with sand or sawdust that 

324 



The Possibilities of a City Flat 

can be wet down with the hose to create a moist 
atmosphere ; but where this can be done a very suc- 
cessful roof garden can be created with the prin- 
cipal expenditure that for earth and sawdust. 
Most flowers of the summer garden can be grown 
in such a position and one could arrange a very 
satisfactory little lily pool and fountain by means 
of a big zinc tub, a length of hose, two or three 
water lilies and some gold fish. A few inches of 
earth in the tub will supply a footing for the 
lilies and a mask of plants around the base will 
hide the crudeness of the pool. 

When one has undertaken a garden like this 
it will be found surprising how many things one 
will pick up in one's little excursions out of town 
to add to it ; all one's friends will take an interest 
and pleasure in donating seeds and plants and if 
the roof affords room for a hammock and a few 
chairs, the question of where to go for a summer 
vacation will not take on such poignant interest, 
nor the inability to afford one be so great a trag- 
edy. Such an oasis in the heart of a city will be 

325 



The Busy Woman s Garden Book 

a delight to a child and solve the problem of keep- 
ing it off the street and from undesirable com- 
panions. I should like to think that a good many 
such little oases will develop and that I might 
know of them. 

It might be that two or more people have 
homes overlooking a roof who would join to- 
gether in the making of a garden. In that way 
a larger area could be undertaken and the ex- 
pense would not be seriously felt. If the roof 
is one exposed to much sunshine, then one should 
select plants which revel in sunshine like the an- 
nual poppy, the verbena, salvia, sweet alyssum, 
candytuft, ageratum, dahlia, canna, California 
pop^y, asters; all these are hardy, easily grown 
plants, which will give an abundance of bloom all 
summer. Of course geraniums and coleus can 
also be depended upon to do their prettiest, but 
one and all should have a daily or semi-daily show- 
ering with a hose to remove the grime and dust 
of the day and freshen the foliage as well as to 
provide the necessary water to drink. Probably 
the entire success of the roof garden will depend 

326 



The Possibilities of a City Flat 

upon just this one feature of an adequate water 
supply at the roots and a thorough cleansing of 
the foliage each day. Given this there is no rea- 
son why a garden of this sort should not be a 
success. 



THE END 



INDEX 



Aconite, Winter, 285 

Ageratums, 313 

Altheas, 302-304 

Anise, 206 

Anterrhinums, tall, 268 

Aralia Spinosa or Hercules 
Club, 294 

Arctotis Grandis, 264-267 

Argemone, 265 

Arsenate of Lead, 211 

Arsenate of Zinc, 211 

Artichokes, 186-187; Jerusa- 
lem, 188-189 

Asparagus, starting of bed of, 
80; fertilizing, 80-81-82; set- 
ting of roots, 81 ; when to set, 
81; to avoid self-sowing of, 
82; variety to plant, 83; 
young plants, 84; when to 
cut, 84; to keep down weeds, 
84; spraying, 214; to can, 
244-245 

Asparagus Sprengeri, 313 

Aspidistras, 322 

Aster, 269-270 



Bean Beetle, 215 

Bean Weevil, 215 

Beets, 86-88-89-90; ho^v to 
sow, 39; soil for, 87; depth to 
plant, 87; to grow, 89; beet 
leaf spot, 215; when to dry, 
22; to store, 228; to can, 245 

Beet Leaf Spot, 215 

Beetle, Colorado, 218 

Beetle, Flea, 215-218 

Bene, 206 

Blight, 217; celery blight, 216 

Borage, 206 

Bordeaux, Arsenate of Lead, 
213 ' 

Bordeaux Mixture, 212-214 

Broccoli, 189 

Brussels Sprouts, 190 

Buddleya — a plant, 295 

Bug Death, 211 

Bulbs, Fall, planting, 282-283- 
284-285-286-287-288; soil for, 
284-285 

Burning Bush, or Euonymus, 
295 



Balm, 205 

Basil, 206 

Beans, 127-128; how to plant, 
124; varieties, 125; Lima 
beans, 126, 128; when to 
plant, 122; how to sow, 39; 
varieties, 123, 129; to spray, 
214-215; to can, 245-246 

Beans Anthracnose, 214 



Cabbage, 129 ; transplanting, 
130; cultivating, 131; ene- 
mies of, 131, 132-133; varie- 
ties, 134; to protect from 
maggots, 169-170; to spray, 
215; to store, 229 

Cabbage, Chinese, 92-93 

Cabbage root maggot, 216 

Cabbage worm, 216 



S29 



Index 



Candidum, 279-280 

Candytuft, 268-271, 313, 326 

Canning, 232-233-234; types of 
outfits for, 235-236; Cold 
Pack, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 
242, 243 

Cannas, 324-326 

Caraway seeds, 202, 203-207 

Carnations, 315-319 

Cardinal Climber, 323 

Catnip, 205 

Cauliflower, 134-135-137; vari- 
eties, 136; enemies of, 137; to 
protect from maggots, 169- 
170; to spray, 215; to can, 
246; to store, 229-230 

Celery, to store, 230; blight, 
216 

Celeriac, 191-192 

Chamomile, 207 

Cherville, 192 

Chicory, 190-191 

Cinnerarias, 309-315-318 

Citron, 173 

Clarodendrum, 321 

Cleomes, 324 

Cleom Pungens, 268 

Collards, 192 

Columbine, 275 

Coriander, 202-203-207 

Corn, 138, 144; soil required, 
139; methods of planting, 
139-140; varieties, 141; fer- 
tilizing of, 141-142; trans- 
planting of, 143; to can, 246- 
247-248; to dry, 254-255 

Corn salad, 193 

Cosmos, 324 

Cress, 193-194 

Crocus, 282-285-286 



Cold frames, construction, 28- 
29; location, 28; soil, S9; 
frameless beds, 30 

Cucumbers, when and how to 
plant, 171; enemies of, 171- 
172; varieties of, 172, 148, 
144-145-146-147, 216 

Cultivation, 42-45 

Cumin, 207 

Cyclamen, 309-315 

Daffodils, 282 

Dahlias, 263 

Daisies, English, S68-274-291 

Dandelion, 194 

Delphiniums, 277-279 

Deutzia, 300 

Deutzia, Pride of Rochester, 

292-299-302 
Dill, 203-207 

Egg Plant, 149; to start, 148; 
enemies of, 148-149; varie- 
ties, 150-151 

Endive, starting of 93; trans- 
planting, 93-94; use of, 94; 
to blanch, 94; varieties, 95 

Euonymus, or Burning Bush, 
295 

Emulsion, Kerosene, 213 

Feverfew, 275-276 

Flats, florist's, 33; size, 33; 

cover, 34; drainage, 34 
Forsythias, 300-302 

Garden, location, 2-3-4; size, 
9; ploughing, 4-5; cultivat- 
ing, 5; harrowing, 5-6; inten- 



330 



Ind 



ex 



sive, 43; Fall work, 256; 

Winter treatment, 257-258 
Garden, Annual Flower, 261- 

262-263-264-265-266-267-268- 

269-270-271-272 
Garden, Hardy Flowers, 273- 

274-275-276-277-278-279-280- 

281 
Garden for Shut-Ins, 308-309- 

310-311-312-313-314-315-316- 

317 
Garden, Window Space, 318- 

31 9-320-32 1-322-32S-324 
Garden, Roof, 324-325-326-327 
Garlic, 195-196 
Geraniums, 309-315-318 
Gladioliis, 263 

Heliotrope, 319 

Herbs, their uses, 202-203; lo- 
cation of bed of, 203-204; 
treatment of, 204; Perennial, 
205-206; Annual, 207 

Hollyhocks, 279 

Horehound, 205 

Hot Beds, their need, 12; cost 
of, 13; location, 14; construc- 
tion, 15-17, 18-19; size and 
depth, 15; other uses, 15; 
temporary bed, 16; heating 
of, 20; soil, 21; temperature, 
21 

Hyacinths, 282-284-285 

Hydrangea Arborescens, 290- 
299-302-304, 291 

Hydrangea paniculata grandi- 
flora, 299-302 



Impatiens, 322 
Ixias, 285 



Japanese Morning Glory, 323 
Japanese Rose Bush, 313 

Kale, or Borecole, 196-197 
Kohl-Rabi, 197-198 

Lavender, 205 

Leeks, 198 

Lettuce, 86; how to plant, 43- 

96; varieties, 96-97-98; Ro- 

maine, 97 
Lilacs, 293-304-305-306 
Lobelias, blue, 268-313 
Lychnis, 275-276 

Manettia vine, 313-321 

Marigold, 268 

Marty nia, 199 

Melons, Musk, 173-174-175-176 

Melons, Water, 177 

Mildew, 217 

Mint, 205 

Morning Glories, 368 

Narcissi, 282-285 
Nasturtium, 268-313 
Nicotianas, 264-266; Sylvestris, 
269 

Okra, 152-153; to can, 248-249 
Onions, 98-99-100-103; onion 
sets, 100; New Onion Cul- 
ture, 101; destroying lice on, 
102; to dig, 104; to spray, 
217; storage of winter onions, 

Paris Green, 211 
Parsley, 106-107; use of, 105; 
sowing, 105; varieties, 108 



331 



Index 



Parsnips, 109-110; to store, 230 

Peas, 86-110-111-112-113-116- 
117; to hasten germination, 
40; varieties, 113-114; ene- 
mies of, 114-115; to can, 249 

Pelargoniums, 319 

Pennyroyal, 205 

Peppermint, 205 

Peppers, to start, 153; their 
care, 154; varieties, 154, 155- 
156 

Petunias, 313 

Phlox Drummondi, 268-313 

Phlox, Hardy, 301 

Physostegias, 275-276 

Pimpinella, 207 

Plants, 31; potting off, 32; 
hardening of after trans- 
planting, 48; watering, 48 

Planting, distance apart, 7; 
order of, 8; arrangement, 8; 
Table for, 10-11; planting 
lines, 49; weather for, 49 

Plant Enemies, 208-209; de- 
stroying, 209-210; Preventa- 
tives, 211-212-,213-214-217- 
218-219 

Plumosus, Nanna, 321 

Pollyanthus, 291 

Poppies, Oriental, 301 

Potatoes, 225; storing, 523; bin 
for, 224 

Potatoes, sweet, 184-185; for 
storing, 226 

Primroses, 309-315 

Prince Feather, 265 

Pyrox, 212 



Radishes, 86-118-119; how to 



sow, 39-42; to protect from 

maggots, 169-170 
Riccinus, 264, 268, 324 
Rosemary, 205 
Rudbeckias, 301 
Rue, 205 
Rhus typhina laciniata, 293-294 



Sage, 206 

Sage, scarlet, 268 

Salsify, 3; to store, 231 

Salvias, .271 

Sand box, size, 31; location and 
use for plants, 31; location 
for vegetables, 32 

Scab, 218 

Scabiosas, 268 

Scillas, 282-285 

Schizanthus, 271 

Seed — In Hot Beds: sowing, 
22; separating, 32; arrange- 
ment, 23-23-25; labelling, 23; 
germination, 23 ; watering, 
24; care of young seedlings, 
26 

Seeds — In Flats: Sowing, 34; 
covering, 34; labelling, 35; 
care after planting, 35i! 
planting in open ground, 36; 
condition of ground, 36; 
when to plant, 37; seed drill- 
ing, 37; rapid seed dropping, 
38; treatment of different 
sizes, 39; buying, 40; testing, 
41 ; table for quantity of, 
200-201; saving, 258-259 
Shrubbery, 292-293-294-295- 
296-300-304-305-306-307; se- 
lection of, 289-290-291-301- 



332 



Index 



302-303; succession of bloom 
for, J297-398-299-300 

Slug Shot, 313 

Soil, 3-3; treatment after sow- 
ing, 38; fertilizing, 49-66-67- 
68-75-78-80; fertiHty, 65; 
humus or leaf mold, 65-66- 
76; to restore humus to, 66- 
67, 68; to test for sourness, 
70-71; to sweeten, 71; chemi- 
cal elements necessary for 
growth in, 72-73-74; analysis 
of, 73 

Soup, 251-252; vegetable, 252- 
253 

Spinach, 120-121 

Spiraea Anthony Waterer, 291 ; 
Van Hutti, 296-299-300, 302, 
304; Ulmaria, 274; Fillipen- 
dula, 275 

Sprengari, 322 

Squash, 178-180; starting of, 
179; transplanting, 180; va- 
rieties of, 151 ; squash bug, 
217; to store, 227; to can, 250 

Squash, English Marrow, 163- 
164, 165 

Squash, summer, 183-184; vari- 
eties, 182; to can, 250 

Stocks, 268 

Storage, 223-323; what to store, 
220; kind of room for, 221 

Sultanas, 268 

Summer Savory, 202-206 

Sweet Alyssum, 268 

Sweet Fennel, 203-205 

Sweet Marjoram, 206 

Sweet Peas, 268 

Swiss Chard, 91; use for 



greens, dressing, 91; varie- 
ties, 92 
Symphoricarpus, 291-292 

Tagetes, 207 

Tansy, 306 

Tamarix, 306-307 

Tarfugiums, 332 

Tarragon, 203-207 

Tartarian Honeysuckle, 302 

Thumbergia, 313 

Thyme, 206-207 

Tigridias, 263 

Tomatoes, 158-219; their use, 
157; to stake, 159; setting 
out, 160; fertilizing, 161; va- 
rieties, 162-163; to can, 249- 
250 

Tools, rake, 53; wheelbarrow, 
53-54; "cultivators, 44 and 
54; seeding attachment, 55; 
hoe, 44-55; trowel, 5Q; gar- 
den line and reel, 57-58; 
watering pot, 59; spraying 
apparatus, 59; spading fork, 
60; manure barrel, 60-61-62; 
tomato supports, 62; home- 
made roller, 102-103 

Transplanting, method of, 50- 
51-52 

Tritomas, 275-276 

Tulips, 282-283-284-285 

Turnips, 166; variety, 167; en- 
emies of, 168; protection 
from maggots, 169; to store, 
169 

Ulmarias, 301 

Vegetables, early, 3; late, 3; 



333 



Index 



which may be started in a 

hotbed, .26-27 
Verbena, 267-268-313 
Violets, English, 274-291 

Waldmeister, 207 

Wandering Jew, 322 

Weeds, to exterminate, 43-45; 



first to appear, 46; purslaine, 
46; red root, 47; to utilize, 47 
Weigela Eve Rathke, 300-304 
Worms, cut worms, 37; vege- 
tables susceptible to, 37, 215, 
216, 217-218-219 

Zenias, scarlet or orange, 268 



334^ 



